Through the Aura
by Bardothren
Summary: The second part of the Sinex Conquest Saga, this story follows Keith's awakening in a modernized pokemon society ruled by the Zoroark. In his quest for vengeance, he finds new allies and sneaks into the Family's midst. However, a new threat lurks in the shadows beneath the city, one that seeks the destruction of all pokemon.
1. Chapters 1-2

Through the Aura

Part Two of _The Sinex Conquest Saga_ By Bardothren

Chapter 1: Alex Bayson

Police barricades surrounded the hole discovered beneath a large sandstone boulder. Dozens of sightseers gathered around to watch a radio crew, accompanied by a squadron of police officers, delve into the ruins.

A roserade, wearing a flowing black dress and holding a microphone in her petals, spoke into it as she walked into the entrance. "This is Alex Bayson, reporting to you live from the ruins uncovered earlier this morning by an excavation team searching for oil. The technology we've seen so far indicates that this predates known civilization, and it may provide a valuable insight into the lost history of pokemon. I have with me my cameraman, Sikes, and a large escort of officers in the event we run into anything alive down there. I will be giving you all the news as we explore the ruins."

Sikes, a bibarel, tinkered around with his camera's lens and smoothed out his dusty suit while the officers checked their guns and added fresh batteries to the electric torches. Four officers jumped down the hole, then Sikes passed down his camera equipment and jumped down after them, landing on his rear with a loud thump. Tracey followed, keeping the cord on her microphone from tangling in the rocks as she jumped.

"How much cord do we got?" Alex asked up the hole.

"A thousand feet. We couldn't get anything longer.

"Alright listeners! Here we go!"

The expedition team turned on their electric torches and searched the ruins room by room, prying open each door to look inside. Sikes waddled around, setting up his camera and taking shots of each room, while Alex reported everything they saw.

"This first room looks like a bedroom, but the beds are far too small for a fair number of pokemon. Hold on, there's something in one of the beds, some bones. A machoke maybe? No, the ribs are too small. It looks like a human skeleton, and it has to be centuries old, if not more. All the other beds are empty, but it looks like they were slept in. On to the next room!"

Alex posed next to the flat-screen TV as Sikes snapped a picture of it. "Here, we have what looks like some sort of… device. It looks like a painting, but it's blank. The surface seems to be glass, yet it's black. It also has buttons, maybe it turns on? It doesn't seem to work, so I guess we will never know."

"Hey, there's a set of stairs over here!" one of the officers said. "Should we take a look?"

"Let's finish up the rest of the upper floor first," Alex told them. "We'll save the best for last."

Alex went through the kitchen, poring over the boxes and cans sitting in the shelf and commenting on the pile of dishes sitting next to the sink. They tried prying open the door with a circular yellow sign painted onto it, but even with crowbars and superhuman strength, the door wouldn't budge. They rifled through a closet filled with human clothes, the medical room, and a gym before reaching the stairs.

"Here's hoping we have enough cord. Onward with the expedition!"

Two officers went ahead, followed by Sikes and Alex, with two officers facing the rear. Alex felt the cord tug at her hand just after she reached the bottom.

"Uh oh, looks like I'm out of cable. We've reached a cavern at the bottom, and although it's pitch dark in here, I can smell moisture. Perhaps there's a pond nearby, or an underground river. We'll send Sikes ahead to take pictures."

Sikes followed three officers into the cave, while the fourth remained by Alex, swinging the torch around to illuminate the ceiling.

"It seems that this cavern is coated with tiny white crystals. Perhaps this cavern held a mining operation long ago. Officer Nolf, could you please share your opinions on this place?"

"It's quiet," the officer said. "We better not stay too long or the torches will run out."

Sikes set his camera's tripod onto the floor, and he said, "Hey, Alex! We found something! It looks like some sort of crystal coffin!"

"A coffin? Can you open it?"

"I don't think so, but I can see a pokemon inside. I've never seen anything like it before."

"Did you hear that, listeners? Perhaps we've found an ancient pokemon predating known history! We'll have to wait for Sikes' photos for further confirmation."

Sikes shouted, and his camera clattered on the stone floor. The officers with him leapt back and drew their pistols.

"Sikes, what happened?"

"It opened its eyes! It looked right at me! Alex, I don't think that thing is dead!"

A resounding crack echoed in the cavern, and the crystal coffin split in two. The blue-haired pokemon inside stood up and stretched his arms.

"Freeze! Move and we will shoot!"

A blue glow filled the chamber, coming from the pokemon and the crystals in the cave. One officer panicked and fired his weapon, and the bullet slammed into a blue barrier surrounding the pokemon. The other officers opened fire, filling the chamber with flashes of blue light.

The blue pokemon lunged, knocking out each officer with a shimmering punch. Then he turned towards Sikes, who was cowering against a wall.

"No, wait, don't hurt me! I'm unarmed, see?"

The pokemon picked up the camera, turning it around in his hands and flexing the tripod's legs. He peered through the lens, turned the camera around and looked into the eyepiece. He set the camera down on its legs and walked towards the stairs.

"Hold it!" Officer Nolf shouted. "You are under arrest for assaulting an officer. Come quietly or I will shoot!"

The pokemon vanished and reappeared behind the officer, and then he dug his fingers into the officer's shoulder-blade. The officer gave a brief cry of pain before he fell to the floor. His torch clattered to the floor, illuminating the pokemon that stood before Alex. She couldn't look away from his pale green eyes as he walked closer to her.

Alex held up the microphone and stammered into it. The pokemon looked at the microphone and held out his hand. Alex looked at the microphone and quickly handed it to him. He crushed the microphone into pieces and dropped them onto the floor.

"Sorry about that. I can't risk the wrong people knowing I'm still alive."

"Who are you?"

The pokemon closed its eyes, and after a few seconds, it said, "You can call me Arkus. What year is it?"

"What year? It's the five-hundred and eighty-fifth year in the Era of The Father."

Arkus furrowed his brow at hearing the year. "I see." He walked up the stairs, and after looking at the unconscious officers, Alex followed after him. Arkus went into the refrigerator and opened two bottles of root beer.

"Here," he said, handing Alex a root beer. She twirled a vine around the bottle and took a sip while Arkus drained his bottle in a few gulps.

"I wish it was cold, but after six hundred years, I'm just happy it's still drinkable."

"So, you know what this place is? Who was the human in the bed? Do you think you'd be willing to participate in an interview?"

"I could tell you everything, but there wouldn't be a point, not after I erase your memories." Alex backed away from him into a shelf and Arkus said, "Don't worry, it won't hurt a bit. It'll be just like waking up from a dream."

"No! Stay away from me!" Alex waved her petals forward, scattering a cloud of orange powder. She ran out of the refrigerator, but Arkus was waiting outside the door. He placed a finger onto her forehead, and she slumped to the ground.

"That's better," he said, placing the roserade onto a bed. "Now for the others."

Alex woke with police officers and doctors standing over her bed, her shoulder being shaken by a burly makuhita.

"Wake up already!" the makuhita shouted.

"No, stop!" a doctor protested, holding him back with a leafy hand. "We don't know what kind of trauma she has experienced!"

Alex opened her eyes. "Trauma? What happened?"

"You don't remember? We found you all lying here in these beds," the doctor told him. We came down here minutes after your radio signal was cut off. Looks like something crushed it."

"My camera!" Sikes shouted from his bed. "My beautiful camera! I had one payment left on it, and it's smashed to pieces! Smashed!"

"It seems that you all have experienced some minor amnesia," the doctor said. "Can you tell me what you last remember?"

Alex held her flowers under her chin. "Well, I remember going through the rooms, then we went downstairs. Everything after that feels fuzzy."

"Just like the others. I'll need you to stay in Palsitore Central Hospital for a few weeks, just to make sure you don't experience any complications."

As Alex was carried out on a stretcher, she saw a faintly familiar set of pale-green eyes amongst the crowd, hidden beneath a white hood, but when she looked back, they were gone.

Chapter 2: Alicia de Renera

Palsitore's Central Library was a graceful stone angel nestled snugly in the midst of towering steel behemoths. It sat atop a small hill, with a wide set of marble steps leading up to the library's carved double-doors. The library's interior walls were scuffed so they wouldn't reflect the light of the steel-framed electric chandeliers, and the carpets were thin, deep-blue cotton. To the left of the door was a wide wooden desk. Aside from closing off the staff areas, it also housed the library's records and a chest of wooden figurines. To the right were the bathrooms and stainless steel drinking faucets in four different sizes.

In the back, to the left, were twelve round tables, each with four chairs of varying sizes, and another twelve chairs with bendable metal lamps. To the right, ten wooden bookshelves, each ten feet high and spaced six feet apart, held so many books that the shelves sagged and creaked every time a book was added. One time, a shelf broke, causing an avalanche of books that made the shelf tip over. Alicia would've been crushed were it not for the vigoroth sharing the aisle with her.

Alicia smoothed out her white librarian's uniform as she searched through a pile of returns and marking them down in her ledger when a man in a white cloak entered the library. She caught a glimpse of his pale, green eyes before the hood's shadow obscured them.

"Weird clothes," Alicia whispered to herself as she checked for overdue books. She found a set that hadn't been returned and circled them with a red pencil. "A new fashion from Yvenna, maybe?"

She plucked a printed letter out of a drawer, wrote the tardy borrower's name and address on it, and slid it through the mail slot on the far wall. She checked the return bin for more books before loading the returns on her cart and wheeling it out into the aisles. She started with the Z's and wound her way towards the rear of the library, returning the books, checking their distribution, and shuffling them around to even the load on each shelf. Every time her long, black hair got caught on a shelf or under the wheels of her cart, she hissed and gently untangled it.

As she rounded the corner of the B section, she saw the white robe again. She tried to look closer at the man's face, but he slipped away when she rolled the cart into the aisle.

"Oh dear," she whispered to herself as she shelved the remaining books. "I don't want to be rude, but I'd get in trouble if I let another human into the library. I suppose I'll have to ask him."

Alicia peeked through the shelf of the bookcase. The man had a stack of books next to him, and he was flipping through the pages of a book in his hands. Alicia wiped the sweat gathering at her brow and walked up to the man's table.

"Um, pardon me for asking this, but I need to make sure humans aren't using the library. Could you please show me your face?"

The man looked at her and raised his hood. He had the green, angular face of a grovyle, and his headleaf was tucked under his hood.

"Ah, sorry to bother you. I'll let you get back to reading."

Alicia returned to the front desk and helped an elderly medicham check out a book on gardening. Once she finished updating her ledgers, she stared out at the tables. Though she tried not to pay the grovyle any mind, she noticed that he flipped through each book before setting it aside. She debated asking him if he was looking for a specific book.

"I mean, it would take him a long time to go through the entire library, about six weeks at his pace. On the other hand, he should know that there's the card catalogue in the back. But maybe he hasn't been to a library before, but then again, there's a library in Yvenna too. Is he from somewhere else? For that matter, I've never seen a grovyle with that particular eye coloration. It's also odd that he keeps his headleaf tucked under his hood. Isn't that uncomfortable?"

"Pardon me miss," a granbull said, "but you're mumbling again."

"Oh my! Sorry, I'll get you checked out right away."

Once the granbull left with his books, Alicia glanced over at the clock on the wall.

"Wow, it's three already? Time for a break."

Alicia went into the back room and took her lunch out of the ice box. She ate her mixed berry salad and sausage links at a frenzied pace, shoving the food in her mouth, mashing it up, and gulping it down with a swig from her water bottle.

After she finished cleaning her face, she returned to the front desk and took out the box of wooden carvings. The box was sorted into three columns, one finished, one started, and one blocks of wood waiting to be carved. She rifled through the unfinished works as she looked around the library.

"No, Mrs. Albury isn't here," she mused to herself. "Mr. Tannensatz isn't either. Hmm… oh, Ms. Iver is here! I should finish hers."

Ms. Iver sat in the far corner of the library, hunching over a book. Her floppy, fluffy ears were tied back in a gentle bow behind her head, and the tufts of fur around her hands were neatly trimmed back. The wooden figurine held a similar posture, and most of the body was complete, but Alicia had saved the ears for last, hoping that Ms. Iver would sit closer to the desk one day. The ears needed detailed work, which Alicia couldn't do well without a better view of Ms. Iver.

With a sigh, Alicia rubbed her fingers together, conjuring a thin, dark blade between her fingers. She glanced up and saw the grovyle staring at her out of the corners of his eyes. Alicia hastily looked away and returned her attention to her project.

As she peered towards the elderly lopunny, she ran her fingers over the wooden surface, scraping gouges into the wooden block above the figurine's head. Sliver by sliver, the block was worn away into the shape of a fluffy bow. The end result was lopsided, as though it were blown by a gentle breeze, but she gave it a grin and set it in the finished box, alongside a croconaw and a furret.

"Alright, who's next?" Alicia asked as she rummaged through her works in progress. She plucked out the first one her fingers curled around and saw the face of Mr. Tannensatz.

"Ah, that's no good. I should start a new one then."

She looked around the library and her eyes first drifted towards the cloaked grovyle. She started to reach for a block of wood when she stopped herself.

"No, he wouldn't be a challenge, not with that cloak. Maybe I should try Ms. Ivan again? I did screw up her ears…"

She looked up again at the grovyle, and he had left the table to return the stack of books. He returned to the table with the stack from the shelf's second row.

"Wait, did he read through all those books? He couldn't have, he just skimmed them. Then again, there are some pokemon that can read really fast, like Father. But he's a grovyle, and grovyle can't read that fast. No, he's just skimming."

Alicia glanced over at the clock and saw that it was already five. She snapped her fingers, and the dark blade shattered into dust. She grabbed the microphone under the counter, pressed the button next to it, and spoke.

"May I have your attention, everyone. The library will be closing in five minutes. Please return your books where you found them or check out in the remaining time. Thank you again for visiting the Palsitore Public Library, and have a pleasant evening."

Five patrons were in the library when she made the announcement. Three returned their books and left, Ms. Iver checked out the book she was reading, and the grovyle remained seated, leafing through the final pages in a book on algebra. Alicia walked around the counter and approached the grovyle's table.

"Excuse me, sir? The library is closing, and I'm afraid I have to ask you to leave."

He didn't look up from the book. Instead, he skimmed through the last few pages, placed his stack of books back on the shelf, and walked towards the library's exit.

"Have a good evening, sir!"

The grovyle stopped and turned his head towards her. Then he kept walking without giving a reply.

"Huh. Does he not know how to speak? He can read, but he could still be mute. Or he could be rude. Probably the latter."

Alicia dusted off the tables, starting with the grovyle's table. After she cleaned all the tables, she took the rag and shook it outside. A brilliant blue strand, glittering in the sunlight, caught her attention as it drifted towards the ground. She plucked it out of the air and held it to her eyes.

"That's strange, where did you come from? Some kind of thread?" She rubbed the strand between her fingers and told herself, "No, that's a hair, but what could it have come from?"

A gust of wind blew the hair out of her hands. She watched, holding a hand over her eyes as the strand floated over the library.

"I guess it doesn't matter. Now, what was I doing again?"

She collected her lunchbox from the icebox, checked the library for stray books, and locked up. She hopped onto the trolley, clambering up to the second floor and holding on to the railing. She watched the city crawl by, pokemon walking down sidewalks, humans washing windows and sweeping the streets, steel buildings that cast shadows over the city and reflected sunlight off their windows.

Alicia clambered off as the trolley rounded the corner of her building. She walked through the glass doors and took the lift up to her floor. She fished for the key in her pocket and unlocked the door. As she walked inside, she stepped on an envelope.

She turned on the lights and inspected the envelope. The black wax it was sealed with sparkled beneath the light bulbs. She pried the envelope and read the message inside.

"Oh no, not another one. And I still don't have a fiancée, mother's going to be furious."

She threw her dirty dishes in the kitchen sink, rummaged around her icebox, and took out a half-eaten chocolate cake. She crammed the piece in her mouth and rinsed it down with sink water, and then she went into the bathroom. As she washed the frosting off her face, she noticed a sliver of wood sticking in her hair.

"Not again." She wiggled the sliver around until it slipped out of her hair. After she checked her hair for more debris, she brushed her teeth, threw off her clothes, and slipped under her covers.

"God damn it, mother," she said to her pillow, "Why do you have to be such a bitch?"


	2. Chapters 3-4

Chapter 3: Eck

Palsitore's brawling rings had a few rules: no gouged eyes, no weapons, and no deaths. The two stadiums in Palsitore that accommodated these events had seating in the crowds for pokemon of all sizes, and the aisles were kept wide for larger pokemon to walk through. Below, however, the hallways were only wide enough for smaller pokemon and humans.

The chairs in the stadium were tough old leather, scratched up by decades of patrons. The lights welded into the ceiling gave off a harsh incandescent light that illuminated the ring, allowing the diffused light to shine on the rest of the stadium.

Eck wore nothing but his short, greasy black hair and a red belt. His pale skin was riddled with scars, and his nose was bent sideways. A missing tooth left a black hole in his smile.

Eck watched from the sidelines as two other humans punched and kicked each other in the ring, the crowd roaring each time one of them landed a powerful blow. After three rounds, the human with the blue belt fell to his knees, and his green-belted opponent slammed their knee into his face. Blood spurted from his nose as he toppled onto his back, and two more humans stepped onto the ring to drag him off.

"And the winner of the first round is Valt, with a stunning blow to the head! For our next contestants, we have Eck, an experienced hand in the brawling rings, duking it out with Murd, a heavy-set human that doesn't fall easy. Who will win tonight, folks! Place your bets, don't be shy, it could be your lucky night!"

A shiftry walked up behind Eck and tapped him on the shoulder with a leaf. Eck turned around, and the shiftry handed him a bottle of water.

"Now, I've already taken a hit with you, so don't lose tonight, you got that?"

"Yes, master, I will win."

"I'll believe it when I see results. Win, and I'll see to it you have a pleasant evening at Moony's. I hear the ladies there are looking forward to seeing you again."

"You're too kind, master." Eck shuffled his red belt and walked towards the ring. The crowd, as usual, was raucous, and he had to suppress the urge to cover his ears. One person, however, was both startlingly loud and eerily silent. He glanced around for the source and saw a white-cloaked pokemon sitting near the top. Even from atop the stadium, Eck could clearly hear his breathing.

The shout of his name drew his attention to the yellow-belted man striding onto the ring. The man smacked a fist against his meaty chest and shouted Eck's name again.

"I'm going to grind your face into the mat for that cheeky comment you gave me yesterday, and there's nothing the ref can say or do that's going to stop me!"

 _I don't know what the hell master Siru was thinking, pitting me against this monster. He should be a little smarter with his money. Maybe I can get him too angry to think._

Eck raised his head slightly, and spoke loud enough for the entire crowd to hear. "He won't have to, not after I feed you your own teeth."

The crowd cheered, and Muld's face turned scarlet. "You talk big for such a scrawny twig. I'm going to enjoy snapping you in two."

Eck and Muld clambered between the ropes and positioned themselves at the opposing corners of the rings. With one last comment from the announcer and the ring of a bell, the brawl began.

Muld charged, bringing his right arm back and swinging it for Eck's gut. He spun out of the way and shoved Muld on the back, sending him into the ropes. Muld untangled himself and charged again, this time with a sweeping kick aimed at Eck's ankles. Eck jumped, but Muld's foot caught his toes, and he landed on his side. He rolled back, tucking his arms into his sides, but Muld planted a kick in the square of his back, knocking him towards the ropes. Eck scrambled up, but Muld rushed forward and jabbed him in the gut. Eck grabbed his gut with his left hand and swung with his right, catching Muld on the cheek. Muld countered with an uppercut into Eck's jaw, and although he turned his chin aside, the blow knocked him up and out of the ring.

"One!" the announcer shouted, and the crowd chanted. "Two! Three! Four!"

Eck swung himself over the ropes and held his fists in front of his face. Muld swung for his groin, but Eck dashed forward and grabbed his arms, pinning them to his sides. As Muld struggled, Eck dug his leg into the back of Muld's kneecap and threw him to the ground. Eck dug one hand into Muld's throat and used his other elbow to pin his shoulder to the ground.

Muld used his left arm to hoist himself off the ground, throwing Eck off his chest. Eck kicked at Muld's legs, knocking him to the floor, but Muld turned as he fell and landed elbow-first onto Eck's leg. He screamed as he felt a bone crack in his shin.

Siru rushed forward and threw a white cloth into the ring. The announcer called an end to the match, but as Eck hobbled off the stage, Muld wrapped an arm around his throat and squeezed. A referee waddled onto the stage and stunned Muld with an electric shock.

"That's a penalty on Muld, folks! Eck wins the match!"

There were a few cheers from the crowd, but most pokemon booed as Eck hobbled into the locker room. When he sat down, Siru ran a few leaves over his leg.

"That doesn't feel too bad, probably a hairline fracture," Eck's master told him. "You won the match like I asked, but now you'll be out of the ring for a few weeks. Ugh, what am I going to do with you?"

The ampharos referee waddled into the locker room and said, "Excuse me, sir, but there's someone that would like to speak with you."

"Go and get changed," Siru told Eck. Then he nodded at the referee, and a minute later, he returned with the white-cloaked pokemon. Eck listened in from the other room as he rubbed himself with a wet rag and put on some clothes.

"Wait, you want to buy Eck? Not that I'm complaining, but you know he's going to be out of the rings for a few weeks, right?"

"That won't be a problem," the stranger replied. "Would eight-thousand be enough?"

"Eight thousand! I only paid six for him, and that was after a winning streak. Not that I wouldn't want the money, but are you sure you got the right guy?"

"I'm sure. Is it a deal?"

"You know what? Screw it, I'm done with the brawling business. I'll throw in everything – clothes, equipment, contracts, all of it for eight grand. It's a deal."

Through a crack in the door, Eck saw the man pull eight stacks of bills out of a pocket and hand them to Siru. The shiftry counted a stack before setting them on a bench.

"Well, I'll be damned. Eck, are you dressed yet?"

"Yes master," Eck called. He entered the locker room after Siru waved him over, and he turned himself around for the stranger.

"This is Eck. He's amiable as far as humans go, but not that strong. He might not win every match, but he hasn't gotten any penalties either. So, you're absolutely sure you want to do this?"

"Show me where to sign."

"Alright then." Siru turned to the referee and asked for transfer documents. After a minute, the ampharos returned with a short stack of papers. Siru filled out most of the documents and pointed out the places where the stranger needed to sign. Once the ink was dry, the ampharos handed the stranger Eck's contract and took the rest of the papers.

"It's a done deal," Siru said, holding out his hand. They shook hands, and Siru turned to Eck. "This is your new master, Eck. Best of luck to you."

Once Siru was done, Eck took a closer look at his new master's face. It seemed as though he was wearing a blue, transparent mask shaped like a grovyle, with a more canine face underneath. Eck strained his eyes and saw that the grovyle face was the fake.

"Do you have any orders for me, master?"

"The name's Arkus," the stranger told him.

"Any orders, master Arkus?"

"Sit and let me look at your leg."

Eck sat down on a bench and pulled up the coarse, brown cloth of his pants. Arkus closed his eyes and ran his hand over the surface of Eck's skin. Eck saw his hands glow with a light that sank into his skin, and he felt his bones grow cold as they melded together.

"Your leg's fine, but you need to act like it's broken."

"Yes master." Eck took a splint out of his locker and tied it around his leg, and then he hobbled across the locker room and asked, "Is this good?"

"It'll do. Now, find us somewhere good to eat, something that's within hobbling distance and under a thousand dollars for the both of us."

Eck escorted his new master to a nearby pub that served thick-sliced hamburgers piled high with bacon and mushrooms. The pub recently opened, and its wooden floors and walls still smelled of pine sap. A handful of humans and pokemon sat at the long, circular bar, eating their meals while listening to music from a radio. Eck ate one while his master ate two, and they both washed the meal down with a mug of beer.

After their bill was paid, Eck followed his new master to a nearby apartment complex. They took the elevator up to the tenth floor, and Arkus' room was the last door on the left. His room had a small kitchen, two chairs, a radio, a bathroom with a shower, and a spacious bedroom. There was one bed and a hammock strung up against the opposite wall. Arkus threw off his cloak and clambered into the hammock. Eck, after glancing at his master, stripped his clothes off and crawled into bed. He tried making himself fall asleep, but his mind rattled with all the questions he wanted to ask.

Chapter 4: Dussell de Baltham

Dussell de Baltham, a zoroark with neatly brushed fur, a crisp blue uniform studded with gold triangles, and a leather holster for each of his pistols, leafed through a fresh pile of reports as he listened to the commotion of the police station outside of his office. Although Dussell hated the bustle and noise of police officers filing papers and leaving for patrols, he always made it his policy to leave his office door open. That way, he could both maintain the illusion of openness and overhear anything that interested him. That morning, he was considering closing his door for an hour of respite when he overheard a new crime report.

"I just got back from the Jennings case. The man took a bullet through his skull, definitely the work of a sniper."

"Metalhead's work? He hasn't been active for a few years now."

"No, this guy's different. Scary different, if the claydol's to be believed. The claydol used the three impact points to calculate the bullet's trajectory, and it thinks the bullet was fired a quarter mile away."

"You're kidding!"

"It gets better. It did some stuff with wind speeds, and it figures that the sniper didn't have a clear line of sight either."

"So, it thinks the sniper hit his target a quarter mile away, calculating for the city's wind-speeds without a line of sight? I think you need another claydol."

Dussell set the papers he was reading onto his desk and walked out of his office. The officers turned and saluted him.

"Acknowledged." At his word, the officers returned to their work, except the two standing in front of him.

"Is there something you need, sir?" the wigglytuff asked.

"Yes, Officer Fale. You mentioned some anomalies in the Jennings case. Be in my office in five minutes with your claydol unit. I'll need a full report on this matter."

"Yes sir!" Officer Fale ran off to his desk noisily gathering up papers and folders before running off to the claydol repository.

Dussell spent ten minutes staring at the same page of his reports before Officer Fale dragged in a claydol struggling to float away from his door. Once it was inside, Officer Fale closed the door, locked it, and moved his fern in front of the door. Although the claydol threw itself at the door and wiggled the handle, it couldn't escape.

"Don't tell me that's unit sixteen."

"I'm afraid so, sir, and it went crazier than usual when I told it to give you the report."

 _I'm not crazy!_ the claydol screamed telepathically. Dussell and Fale covered their ears in a vain attempt to lessen the noise. _I know you think I'm crazy, and I know that the results are crazy, but I'm not crazy! I checked the calculations ten times and each calculation was recalculated, new parameters taken into account each time to verify the logic, changing wind speeds and muzzle velocities, but there's no denying that there's only one possible path the bullet could've taken, but you'll think I'm crazy, it's insane, preposterous even, to think that anything could kill with such precision─_

Dussell slammed one fist onto the desk and threw his other hand out to whip the claydol with a strand of dark energy. "The report, damn it!"

The claydol cowered behind the fern and said, _yes sir._ From one of its eyes came a blue beam that materialized into a map of the city that took up half the room. The map zoomed in into Jennings' bedroom, depicting three dots where the bullet flew.

 _I ran the trajectories through hundreds of calculations. I'll display all the results now._

The map zoomed out, and hundreds of arcs flared out from the three spots the bullet was known to pass through. The arcs spanned across a slice of the city, but the only physically possible arcs led to the roof of a warehouse in the southern district.

 _As you can see, the only possible site of the shooting was this warehouse a quarter mile away, and no matter where you are on the roof, the X tower is still within the line of sight. I've also just received confirmation from unit four that witnesses reported hearing a gunshot sometime before sundown. I'm not crazy sir, I'm not!_

"You're dismissed, unit sixteen." Fale opened the door and let the claydol out. The unit flew erratically, knocking into desks and toppling people over as it returned to the repository.

Fale took a seat and asked, "Now what, sir?"

"I gather you weren't able to find any clues."

"No sir, but there may be some at the other site – oh wait, sixteen would've reported it."

"Then for now, we do nothing. You're dismissed, and please close the door on your way out."

Officer Fale turned a shade paler and rushed out of the office, gently closing the door behind him. He stood up to close the blinds on his windows and lock his door before sitting down and picking up the phone. He told the operator to patch him through to the Economics Department's director.

"My father," Dussell said when he heard the line click. "Have you heard the news about Jennings?"

"Albor Jennings? I ordered that hit. However, I hear an unlicensed assassin took the contract. I don't know who, nor does my agent, so for now, I advise you drop the matter."

"Did you know the bullet was fired from a quarter mile away, around the X tower?"

His father went silent for a moment, and then he answered, "That changes nothing, so long as he remains within the bounds of our contracts. Make sure this news doesn't go public, and I shall notify you when it is time to start a serious investigation into this matter."

"Thank you. Goodbye, my father."

Just before he set the phone down, a knock came at his door. Dussell opened it and found Officer Fale on the other side, holding an envelope.

"Pardon me, sir, I hope I wasn't interrupting, but a letter just came for you. One of, um, those letters." He held it out so Dussell could see the sparkling black wax that sealed it. Dussell took it, pried the envelope open, and glanced at the invitation inside.

"Thank you, Officer." Then he strode to the center of the room and said, "The finer details of the Jennings case are not to leave this office, understood?"

Everyone around him said, "Yes Chief!"

"Make sure everyone on the force knows. I don't want any leaks."

Dussell returned to the reports in his office. Although he tried concentrating on the other cases, he couldn't stop analyzing the Jennings murder and the incalculable precision that went into the shot. He was debating sending a second unit for more calculations when his wife walked into his office. Though she ducked underneath the doorframe, the fires flickering out of the back of her neck singed the wood.

"Come on, Dussell, let's have lunch. You're not saying no this time."

"Couldn't you call first?" He glanced down at his reports and realized he hadn't moved a single page. "Actually, you're right, I could use a break. Is Decker's fine?"

"Whatever will get you out of your office. Let's go."

Decker's was a small café across the street from the station. Dussell frequented the establishment so often that he had his own booth, set in the back of the restaurant. His booth was closed off with wooden doors, leaving his table insulated from the voices and ears around it. They each ordered their usual, and within five minutes, their lunch was brought to the table. Dussell picked at his plate of shredded beef, twirling a strand of meat around his fork, while his wife ate two meatball sandwiches in four bites.

"What's eating you?" she asked as she wiped the tomata berry sauce from her mouth.

"It's nothing, Heste. Just another day at the office."

"Don't give me that crap. I usually have to drag you out of there. Not to mention, you didn't yell at me for singing your doorframe again. Just spit it out."

"Fine." Dussell set his fork down and rubbed his temples. "It's this one case that came in, the Jennings case. Whoever the marksman was, he pulled off the shot from a quarter mile away, no line of sight. Even a claydol unit couldn't make the instantaneous calculations required to fire that shot."

"Come here." Heste dragged Dussell around the booth, placing his head onto her breast. "You'll give yourself a headache thinking about it too much. How does that feel, too hot?"

Dussell pressed his head into her fur, closing his eyes as her heat soaked into him. "No, that's perfect, dear. I feel better already."

"Good. So, what did your father have to say about it?"

"He said to leave it alone."

"Then what the hell are you worrying for? If not your father, then the Father knows what's going on and would tell you everything if you needed to know. The truth often tends to be more boring than we expect it to be."

"You're probably right."

"I am right. Now go eat your lunch before I have to heat it up."

Just after Dussell slid over to his plate and scooped up some beef on a fork, a knock came from the booth's door.

"Desserts, compliments of the house!" a voice called from the other side. The door opened, and a nuzleaf set a tray of coffee cake onto the table. Heste stood up, grabbed the nuzleaf by the neck, and pinned him against the wall of their booth.

"You overheard us, didn't you! Answer me!"

"I – I didn't, I swear!"

The fires from Heste's back roared high enough to singe the ceiling. "Liar! You were waiting outside that door, waiting for the conversation to end before bringing in the dessert, weren't you?"

"Heste, enough. He wasn't listening." Dussell could feel a heat wave pouring out of Heste's fur, and the nuzleaf was starting to wilt in the heat. "Just calm down and let him go."

Heste dropped him, and the nuzleaf scrambled out of the booth. Before he could flee, Dussell grabbed him by the neck.

"I'm terribly sorry sir, please forgive me!"

"No, I must ask for your forgiveness." Dussell took his wallet out of his pocket and gave him a twenty. "My wife has a short temper, sometimes. I hope there's no harm done."

The nuzleaf rubbed his throat and said, "No sir, none at all. Thank you."

Once the nuzleaf scurried off, Heste closed the booth and said, "Sorry about that, dear. I should've realized you would've heard anyone eavesdropping."

Dussell leaned over and took his hand. "You were right to be cautious. I can't let news of a professional assassin leak out to the media, or worse, to common gossip. Even with her help, it would be a bloody nightmare." He glanced at his watch and pulled more bills out of his wallet.

"Lunch is over already?" Heste looked down at Dussell's untouched meal. "I'll have that waiting for when you get home."

"Thanks dear." Dussell gave her a kiss and took a slice of coffee cake with him. Once he returned to the office, he wiped the crumbs off his face and returned to his pile of papers.

"Right, let's get some work done."


	3. Chapters 5-6

Chapter Five: Alicia de Renera

The stranger returned the next three days, arriving five minutes after opening and staying until close. Though she tried to make herself focus on her work, she noted that he read through six books an hour, flipping through the pages at a steady pace. She made a rough calculation, predicting that he would finish the entire library in eight weeks.

The impending family meeting also weighed on Alicia's mind, causing her to tangle her hair more often and slip while carving. She discarded four botched attempts at a carving of Mr. Soho before giving up and spending the hours staring off into the distance, thinking over how she would deflect her mother's comments.

She returned home Tuesday night and flung open the fridge, but all she could find was a moldy loaf of bread crammed into the back of the bottom shelf, a rancid jar of mayonnaise, and an unopened bottle of wine she received at last year's family meeting.

She undressed and plopped onto her bed, but her stomach protested until she forced herself out of bed, dressed in the first clothes her hands grabbed, and rummaged around for cash. After scraping together eighty dollars, she left the apartment and walked into the first restaurant she saw and ordered four hamburgers. As she shoved each one into her mouth, she fumed over the invitation. Each possible point of debate was examined, each possible response critiqued, and every tactic to end the conversation considered. As she crammed the fourth hamburger into her mouth, she thought to herself how much simpler it would be if she was engaged.

She held her hand over her mouth to keep herself from spitting out her hamburger. After swallowing the hamburger, she coughed into her napkin and drank an entire cup of water.

"A fiancée?" she muttered as she left the restaurant. "Me? Not in a million years. I'll have mother breathing down my neck for the rest of my life."

In her distraction, she walked past her apartment and kept walking down the street. A few blocks later, she was stopped by an outstretched arm.

"Entry's ten dollars, miss," the vigoroth said. His leather jacket sparkled under the purple neon sign of the Lumiose Nightclub.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I─" Alicia stopped herself from turning around. The thought of getting a fiancée again crossed her mind. From what she knew, it usually starts with meeting in a bar or nightclub. She fumbled around her pockets and brought out a twenty. The vigoroth handed her change and gestured towards the door.

"In you go, miss. Enjoy your evening."

The vigoroth opened the door, and Alicia flinched when she heard the commotion inside. Though a live band played at the back of the nightclub, their music was drowned out by the sheer volume of conversations taking place on the dance floor.

Alicia took a deep breath and stepped inside. Off to her left was a bare wooden floor, worn down by thousands of shoes sliding over its surface, and dozens of pokemon in a shuffling crowd, sliding along with the music. To her right were a handful of tables and a long wooden bar. She saw an empty seat at the bar, off in the corner, and she took it.

The bartender plodded over towards Alicia, shaking the bar with each step he took. "Can I get you something, Miss?"

Alicia looked up and saw the bartender tower over her. His thick, meaty blue face had a few scars along the jawline, his arms were as thick as full-grown trees, and his plated shell was thick enough to stop a bullet, judging by the dent just under his heart. She stayed silent and looked away from him.

"It's your time, isn't it? Here, this should suit your tastes." The bartender reached under the counter, pulling out two bottles of liquid and a jar of berries. He poured them into a metal tube and stuck it into a water cannon jutting out of his shoulder. He popped it into the air with a burst of water, showering Alicia with mist and spinning the tube around in a silver blur. The bartender caught the tube, twisted the cap open, and poured the strained contents into a glass.

"On the house," the bartender told her. "Just this once, anyways."

"Thank you." Alicia took a sip of the drink, preparing herself for the harsh sting of alcohol. Instead, the drink slid down her tongue, leaving a sweet, fragrant aftertaste. She could still taste the alcohol, but it enhanced the flavor of the berries by providing contrast. "It's good."

"Thought you'd like it. Let me know if you'd like anything else."

The blastoise lumbered off to fill an ice bucket with beers. Alicia sipped at her drink and glanced over at the dance floor, musing over the idea of joining in. Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw a group of men break off from the dance floor and take a table. She listened in on their conversation as she finished her drink.

"Man, what a night! Rejected four times, right off the bat."

"That's better than last time, Jeff."

"Yeah, remember when that one girl slapped you? I thought your beak was going to snap!"

"Too bad it didn't. We wouldn't have had to listen to him complain the whole evening. Ooh, my poor widdle beak! Ooh, the pain! Hah!"

"Hey, shut up Blake," Jeff said. "I never teased you for the time you got your ass thrown out of Heifer's by that one broad, or that time you got kicked in the balls."

One of them slammed the table and stood, and another said, "Hey, cool it, we're here for a good time, right? So, Jeff, who next?"

Jeff took a long swallow of beer and answered, "Definitely that one."

"Her?" Blake asked. "Are you out of your fucking mind? She's, you know, that. She'll rip you to shreds before you got within a foot of her."

"Don't be such cowards, you two. We've got to live while you can!"

"Which won't be for more than ten seconds if you go over there," the third one said.

"She's a woman, just like any other, and she clearly doesn't know how to have fun. It's my duty as a gentleman to teach her."

Blake roared with laughter and said, "You? A gentleman? Whatever, dude, go over there. I'll be sure to have them carve something properly ironic in your headstone."

"Alright, I will, and you two will owe me a beer apiece if I'm right."

"You're on. Now go get her, you idiot."

"You better have those beers cold and waiting for me. Winning over a woman's heart is thirsty work!" He slid his chair aside and walked towards Alicia. She kept still as he took the seat next to her.

"Hi, I'm Jeff."

Alicia debated what to do and decided to return the greeting. She glanced over and saw that he was a blaziken, dressed in a loose-fitting black jacket and jeans.

"You've never been out before, have you Alicia?"

She shook her head, and Jeff waved over the bartender. "You're not gonna have a good time just drinking fruit juice, you need something stronger." He looked at the bartender and said, "Two shots, something strong, on me."

The bartender took out two shot glasses, just large enough for him to hold in between his claws, and he poured amber liquid into each. Jeff downed one and slid the other towards Alicia.

"This is the good stuff, trust me. Just swallow it all at once."

Alicia picked up the glass and peered at the amber liquid. Then she threw the contents into her mouth. She gagged on the taste as the vodka burned its way down her throat, and she held a hand over her mouth to keep herself from coughing.

"It's foul, but it's good. You'll feel it in a minute."

Alicia could feel her heart rate dropping as the alcohol seeped into her veins. Her anxiety slipped away, replaced by an inebriated sense of calm.

"There, see? You're enjoying yourself already."

Alicia twirled the shot glass in her fingers. "I suppose so."

"Then how about you and I go somewhere else, and have ourselves even more fun?"

Alicia didn't understand what Jeff meant until he leaned towards her for a kiss. She shied away from it, left her seat, and walked towards the exit.

"Shoot, man, you were that close!" Blake said. "You rushed it, man."

"Nah, she's the type of woman that's too scared to take a chance, too scared to live. I could've waited ten years and the results would've been the same."

"Your fault or not, you owe us a beer apiece."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm on it."

The bouncer told her "good night" as she left the nightclub. She kept her eyes on the pavement as she walked to her apartment, and once she was inside, she locked the door and plopped onto her bed.

"I blew it." She pressed her tears into her pillow. "There was my chance to change my life, and I blew it. Why?"

Jeff's words echoed in her head. Too scared, too scared to take a chance, to live, too scared, too scared.

She screamed, "I'm not too scared!" and flung her pillow across her bedroom. Tears welled up in her eyes, and she wiped them away. "I'm not. I'm just… I'm not."

She fell back, and her head plopped onto the mattress. She reached around for her pillow before remembering where it was. She groggily thought over getting the pillow before taking off her shirt and bunching it up under her head.

"I'm not," she muttered before she fell asleep.

Chapter Six: Eck

Eck woke before sunrise, but his master was already gone. Sitting next to him on the bed was a handwritten note.

 _I have no orders for you during the next few days. There's money and a key on the counter, they're yours. Stay out of trouble, and wear the splint if you go out._

Eck took out his key necklace and fitted the key next to his other one, then he counted the money. His fingers started to sweat as he ran them over two thousand dollars. Then a thought came to his mind. It had to be a test; why else would his master give him so much money?

His rumbling stomach convinced him to look through the kitchen, but he didn't find a single scrap of food, not even in the ice box. He strapped on the splint and walked down the street, to a small diner tucked away on a side street. As he scraped the last bits of egg off of his plate, he stared around the diner and thought over what to do.

His thinking was interrupted by the waitress. He refused a refill on his coffee, paid the bill, and walked down the streets. He looked through store-front windows, stifling the temptation to rush into a store and buy himself something.

"It's definitely a test," Eck told himself. "What he really wants me to do is train, doesn't he? I can't work on my legs, but I should do some upper body to stay in shape. Master wouldn't want me too weak to throw punches."

He turned back and walked to the training facility. The receptionist let him in with a warning that his facility permit will expire in a month.

As he walked towards the benches, he noticed Muld doing crunches on the other side of the room. Muld spotted him through the mirrors on the far wall, stood up, and walked over to Eck.

"Well, if it isn't the shrimp. How's your widdle leg doing?"

"Better than you are, meathead. I can only imagine the scolding you got for losing the match."

"Oh, that? My master ordered me to throw the match. You see, if I win too many matches, I'll get pitted against tougher opponents. My master wants steady money, you see."

Eck glanced over at the training supervisors, and one of them was watching Muld. "Good. That means you'll be serious next time I beat your ass."

"Incredible. I broke your leg, and ya still got some spunk. I'll enjoy smashing your face to a bloody pulp." Muld walked against, pressing his face close to Eck's. "And next time, I won't lose, that's a promise you little prick."

As the supervisor walked over, Muld strode to a bicycle and pedaled hard enough to make the metal frame tremble. Eck settled onto a bench, propping up his splinted leg with a rubber ball. The supervisor put fifty pounds onto each time and held his hands under the bar as Eck hefted the weight into the air.

Eck worked with dumbbells next. His arms dripped with sweat as he curled them, and his shirt clung to his body, making each breeze chill his back. Minutes after his muscles began to burn, Eck returned the dumbbells and went over the mirror for crunches. Though he could taste the omelet as his gut roiled, he forced himself through fifty crunches before heading to the showers.

In the locker room, he put the money in his locker and slipped his key's metal necklace on. He stripped off his clothes and dumped them in a tub of soapy water, then he went into the shower at the end and scrubbed the sweat off his skin.

He picked a towel out of the bin and dried himself. Glancing around the corner for signs of Muld, he went over to the tub and found Tas washing his own clothes. He dipped his long, blond hair into the soapy water, scrubbed, and wrung it dry.

"Eck, thought you wouldn't be in with that leg of yours. How's it feel?"

"Hardly hurting at all." He pointed at the drenched splint around his leg and said, "The worst part's wearing this blasted splint."

"Don't push yourself. Siru wouldn't be happy if you made your leg worse."

Eck wrung out his pants and slipped them on. "Oh, about that, I have a new master."

"Siru finally called it quits? So who is it?"

Eck thought about Arkus' two faces before answering, "A grovyle named Arkus."

"Arkus? Never heard of the guy."

"He's weird. He gave me three days to myself and two thousand dollars. It's gotta be a test."

Tas rubbed the short hairs on his jawline and said, "That's a lot of money to use for a test. Is this guy loaded?"

"He paid eight grand for me, in cash."

"Just like that? No negotiations, or consulting with lawyers? Isn't that a little strange?"

"A master's a master."

"You better be careful, Eck. There's a handful of crazy people out there."

Eck wrung out his shirt, shook a few stubborn droplets off, and wriggled into the damp cloth. "Crazier than you? I don't think so."

"Hey, you said you had a few days free, right? How 'bout we go over to Lorie's?"

"I better not. Who knows what Master Arkus would think if I did."

"You might not get another chance, Eck. Who knows how tight of a leash your master will keep on you. Come on, we'd get a discount for sharing the action."

"I've got a broken leg, Tas. How do you expect me to get it on like this?"

"Broken limbs haven't stopped you before." Tas slapped a hand on his shoulder and said, "Come on, live a little. I haven't been there in a while either, and I've got some free time today. Tis fate, my friend."

"Alright, but let's get lunch first. On me."

Just down the street was a sandwich shop, where they each stuffed themselves with a sandwich the size of their forearm. After they finished wiping the mayonnaise from their faces, they walked over to Lorie's brothel. The bouncer at the entrance let them through with a nod.

The main entrance of the brothel was a small candlelit room draped with red curtains. The thick red carpets bounced with every step. On the far wall was a counter wedged between two locked doors. A heavy-set woman with a baggy chin and thin, arcing eyebrows sat behind the counter and waved when they came in.

"Eck, my darling!" the woman said, wrapping her arms around him. "It's been too long. I take it you and Tas here for a shared room? Millie again? She's free at the moment."

Eck placed a hundred dollars on the counter, and Tas added to the pile. The woman threw a switch, opening the door on the right, and Eck walked through the narrow, shadowy hallways to the door on the end. The room had an electric lamp and a thick bed with enormous, fluffy sheets. A thin young woman sat on the bed with her legs spread apart, twirling her brown hair in her fingers. She had enough make-up on to give the suggestion of a blush, and her clothes fit just tightly enough to give the eyes a few clues about what lay underneath.

"Good to see you again, boys. How was the weather today?"

"Blue skies, Millie," Eck answered, and Tas added, "Gorgeous, with clouds as white as fresh-fallen snow. But not nearly as gorgeous as you are."

"Alright, you two, into the bed." Millie stood up and slid the bed back into the wall, then she reached down and slid a panel of flooring aside, revealing a staircase. Eck felt his way down the stairs and reached a door at the end of the hall. He knocked four times, drawing out the third knock, and the door opened.

The main chamber was a round unfurnished stone room lit by a row of electric lights. Hallways branched off into many directions, some returning to the surface and others descending deeper into the earth.

A hooded figure greeted them and asked what brought them. Tas stepped forward and told the man of a business deal he overheard that would lower the stock of L-Corp's lumber division, along with a few rumors about important officials through the city. Eck admitted that he had nothing to offer other than news of his own circumstances and relayed what he knew about his new master. He thought over how to describe the two faces he saw, along with his healed leg, and decided to leave it for later.

"How does your master make money?" the figure asked.

"I don't know."

"Then that is what I want you to focus upon. There are few ways of acquiring money without anyone hearing about it, none of which bode well for us. First, learn what you can, and once we're better informed, we shall decide how to deal with your new master. As for you, Tas, Mistress Lorende is pleased with your hard work. We have much to prepare before the return of Keith the Savior, and that time is fast approaching."

"We understand. Please send our regards to the Mistress."

Tas stayed at the brothel, making his rounds with the women, while Eck returned to his master's apartment. He sorted through his master's belongings, but he didn't find anything, not even clothing. He tapped around the walls and floors for hidden panels and searched through the appliances, but he found no signs of hidden rooms or caches.

"Well, now what? I guess I'll have to ask Master Arkus himself."

He lay on his bed and shuffled the money in his hands while waiting for his master to return.


	4. Chapters 7-8

Chapter Seven: Dussell de Baltham

Two piles of papers sat on Dussell's desk. The stack on his right, nearly a foot high, documented most of the crimes that occurred in Palsitore within the past week, half of them robberies committed by a single group of hooligans. The sides of the paper were smudged with grease from the dozens of times he rifled through them.

On his left was a short stack that he never touched yet always held his eye, reports outlining the assassinations that occurred the past three nights. All four had the same ballistics reports and the same quarter-mile firing distance, though the firing positions and times of death changed each night. What irked him even more was the hand-written note at the end of each report. He himself wrote _low priority case_ onto each report in the smallest legible font he could manage.

As he reached for the larger stack, a knock came at the door and Officer Fale walked in.

"Any updates on the K12 group?"

"No sir. Unit sixteen's behavior has become increasingly erratic since the Jennings incident, and I suggest that you take it off active duty."

Dussell rubbed his brow and said, "Alright then. No, wait, send it in here first."

Unit sixteen left a trail of bruised shins and cracked desks as it wobbled into Dussell's office. It slammed the door and teetered in the air in front of Dussell's desk. On the edge of his mind, he could hear its whispered chant; _I'm not crazy I'm not crazy I'm not crazy._

"Unit sixteen. You will officially be taken off of active duty until further notice. However, there is a favor I would like to ask of you."

 _I'm not crazy!_

"I know, and I want to help you prove it."

The claydol's huge red eyes focused on him, and the wobbling ceased. _You think I'm not crazy? What do you want me to do?_

"I'm not permitted to look into the Jennings case, nor can I allocate official police resources to the case at this time. However, since you're off duty, I can ask you to investigate the Jennings case. Find out the assassin's identity and motivations, but do so without anyone knowing. Do you understand?"

 _I do, thank you sir. I shall begin right away._

The papers floated off his desk and arranged themselves in front of the claydol. The stack was returned, the door opened, and unit sixteen gently floated back to the repository. Officer Nolf brought a cup of coffee into Dussell's office and set it down on his desk.

"That went well. What did you tell it?"

"I told it to use the spare time to come up with arguments proving its sanity," Dussell said. He drank the cup of coffee in one swallow. "So, anything on K12 yet?"

"Gerome's still out," Fale said. "We should receive his next report in a few minutes."

Fale left the office. Dussell leafed through the reports with one hand and slid the empty coffee cup across his desk with the other, leaving a swath of brown droplets. After he went through the pile twice, a claydol floated into his office.

 _Gerome reports that he found the hideout. Warehouse B17. There are ten of them, all armed. He's keeping watch until further orders._

"Have him maintain his watch, and him that back-up will be there in ten minutes."

Dussell strode out of his office and pounded on the nearest desk. "Fale, Kaska, get your guns and come with me."

"You're going out, sir?" Fale asked. "Are they that dangerous?"

"They have to be dealt with quickly or they'll scatter. I don't want to lose a single one."

"Understood, sir." The two cops ran to the locker rooms and returned with their pistols. Kaska took one squad car while Fale drove with Dussell in the other. Fale held a bagel in one hand, sprinkled with shredded oran berry and stuffed with cream cheese. He took bites out of the bagel as he drove.

"So," he said between bites of his bagel, "what did you really tell sixteen?"

"Like I said, I just told him to take the time off to come up with a good argument for his sanity."

"A good argument, meaning you told him to investigate the Jennings case." Fale crammed the last of his bagel into his mouth and said, "I can tell it was eating away at you, being told to go after such a dangerous criminal."

"Just drop it, Fale. That investigation is not the concern of the police."

"I'd like to help."

"Why? It could cost you your job if the higher-ups found out."

"I didn't say my help would come for free." Fale rubbed the curly hair atop his head and said, "Tetso won't be on the force for much longer, and when he leaves, I want his position. Write me a convincing letter of recommendation to the higher-ups, and I'll do everything I can to help you with the Jennings investigation."

Dussell rubbed his temples. "You do know such a deal is considered grounds for dismissal, for both of us, don't you?"

"Don't make me blackmail you as well."

That word made Dussell's mind stop cold. He searched through the conversation and realized that his use of unit sixteen would get him a demotion at the very least.

"I'll start writing the letter tonight."

"I'd like to read it once you're done." He took a left turn and they left the shopping district, entering the wide, empty streets of Warehouse District B. One row in, and five warehouses to the right, was 17B. He caught a glimpse of Officer Gerome, crouching on the warehouse across the street, peering at through the warehouse's windows with his hands cupped around his eyes. Kaska's car was parked in between two other warehouses, and Fale parked their car next to his.

Kaska, holding a pistol in his left hand walked towards them. He was yanked back towards his car door, and he opened it to let his jagged yellow tail out of his car.

"Seriously Kaska?" Fale asked. "How many times are you going to get that stupid tail of yours caught in car doors?"

Dussell drew his pistols and said, "Enough. You two take the front and hold your positions there. Give me ten minutes before you knock, and try not to get shot this time. We'll keep one alive so we get a statement."

"Yes sir!" They unlocked the trunks of their cars and slipped on bulky metal-plated vests and thick metal helmets. While they walked up to the front door, Dussell checked the rest of the buildings for other exits. At the two doors he found, he ignited purple fire between his fingers and welded the doors shut.

Once he was finished, he jumped onto the roof and waited for the sound of gunshots. He sliced open the roof and fell into the warehouse, breaking his fall with a thrust of dark energy.

"Oh shit, it's the police chief!" Three thugs shot at him, and their bullets smashed to bits against his barrier. He drew his pistols and shot the three of them in the head. Four thugs ran for the doors in the back, but they remained tightly shut. Dussell shot each of them in as they pounded on the doors before turning to the three firing at the front door from a balcony. He leapt and shot two at the same time.

As he aimed for the third, he heard Fale shout, "Sir, that's the last one!"

Dussell shifted his aim to the right, blowing off the vigoroth's ear. As he kneeled on the ground, holding a hand over his bleeding head, Dussell walked up to him and kicked his gun away.

"You are now under arrest. Provide us with a full account of your criminal activities, and we may shall be lenient with your sentence."

"Fuck off, you elitist prick." The vigoroth spat at Dussell's feet and said, "You zoroark get it easy, being the children of god and all. What bullshit. Do you actually have to work for your bread? Have you ever even felt hungry? We do what we have to just to stay alive."

"That doesn't make your actions any less illegal."

Dussell heard a gunshot off in the distance, about five blocks away. He turned his head towards the sound, and the vigoroth, sensing his chance, leapt towards Dussell. His claws scraped and slid across Dussell's barrier.

Dussell furrowed his brow and conjured a spinning blade around his right hand, then he stabbed at the vigoroth's neck, plunging his arm up to the elbow into the vigoroth's throat. The vigoroth jerked and spasmed as he coughed up blood, drenching the fur on Dussell's arm. Within seconds, the vigoroth slumped over and slid off of Dussell's arm, falling to the floor below.

Fale walked up to the corpse and looked through the hole in its neck. "Holy shit."

"You always have to know who you're dealing with," he warned Fale. "You're in charge of the scene here. I'm going after that gunshot."

"Gunshot? I understand sir."

Dussell leapt through the hole in the ceiling. Fale looked around the warehouse, shaking his head at the blood pooling on the floor.

"There goes our statement. Well, I better call cleanup before anyone sees this."

"Um, excuse me mister police officer?" A little buneary walked up to Officer Fale and tugged on his pants. "Are you here to save me?"

Kaska walked up to the buneary and stooped to look closer at her. "What the heck? Did they have a hostage too?"

Fale took another look around the corpse-filled warehouse and the girl sobbing into his pants, and whispered under his breath, "This promotion better be worth it."

Dussell leapt across the buildings, clearing the distance between him and the gunshot within ten seconds. He looked around, but he saw no sign of the sniper. A white-robed roserade standing next to a nearby building caught his attention, and he leaped down in front of him.

"Did you hear a gunshot?" Dussell asked.

The roserade ran his hands over his robe and said, "Yes, officer, and I saw it happen."

"You saw it?" Dussell took a notepad out of his pocket and said, "Tell me everything you can remember."

"It was a human, short black hair, scarred face. Its nose looked funny too, white shirt, brown pants. He had a huge gun and fired one shot, but I didn't hear anyone get hit. Looked like he was aiming north."

Dussell wrote everything down and said, "Thank you, this is an enormous help."

"Do you need anything else, officer?"

Dussell almost asked him to come down to the station, but he remembered the status of the case. Although he could claim he thought it was a separate matter, he didn't want to draw attention to his investigation of the Jennings case.

"No, you're free to go. Oh wait, can I get your name first?"

The man paused, and he answered, "Alex. Alex Bayson."

"Thank you Alex."

Once Dussell left for his car, the roserade's appearance shifted into that of a grovyle. The grovyle smiled and said, "That went better than I hoped."

Chapter Eight: Alicia de Renera

For a groggy moment, as Alicia lay in her bed, she wondered why someone was tapping a hammer against her forehead. She propped herself up and covered her forehead, but the pounding persisted. Her tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth and tasted like yeast.

The room spun around her as she placed her feet on the floor. She groped around for clothes and put on the first articles her hands grasped. At the bathroom, she soaked her face in the water and looked at herself in the mirror. Her hair was a tangled mess, and her eyes were a touch bloodshot. Her shirt was on backwards, and she didn't have anything on underneath her pants.

"Fuck hangovers." Alicia rinsed her face more thoroughly before attacking the knots, reselecting her clothes, and opening the fridge open. Her grumbling stomach made it tempting to drink the wine, but she threw the bottle into the garbage can, cracking it at the neck.

A harsh greeting from the sunlight, two orders of hash browns, and a couple thousand aching steps later, Alicia was at the library, groggily checking in books. She realized halfway through that she was mixing up all the names, so she had to remake two pages worth of lists.

When she was reshelving the books, her hair caught under the wheels of the cart five times, yanking it each time. One tangle took five minutes to clear, and another pulled out a few hairs. Her hair also caught on the shelves two times. She almost tried yanking her hair off the shelf, but fear of toppling shelves gave her the patience to slowly untangle the snag.

For one set of shelves, she didn't pay attention to the sheer weight pressing on one shelf, and as she heard it creak, she panicked and pulled all the books off. The imbalance caused the bookshelf to tip the other way, and Alicia braced herself for the crash. However, the shelf stopped a half an inch off the ground, and she stared at the gap underneath the bookshelf in amazement.

She heard a grunt on the other side of the bookshelf, and someone said, "I can't hold this forever."

"Oh, I'm sorry!" Alicia gently pulled the shelf back, and she saw through the shelf that it was the white-cloaked grovyle. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." The grovyle grabbed eight books off the shelf and returned to his table.

At one, Alicia opened up the icebox, but it was empty. She thought back to that morning and realized she hadn't packed a lunch. She scavenged around the break room's cabinets, but all of them were empty. Though her stomach growled as she sat at the counter, she repeatedly told herself that she couldn't leave the library.

By three, her stomach had settled down, but she couldn't stop her mind from wandering through the list of everything she'd cram down her throat the second the library closed. She tried carving, but she ended up turning a piece into sawdust, and when she sneezed, a cloud of sawdust flew up and into her hair. Her reflexes were quick enough to cover her hair in a dark, slick barrier, and the sawdust slid down her hair without catching in it, and she swept the sawdust aside, where her hair wouldn't pick it up.

Though her stomach grumbled as she announced the library's close, she bounced around the library as she cleaned up left-over books. She went to the door to lock up when she realized that the grovyle was still at his seat. His books were returned, and he watched as Alicia walked towards him.

Alicia adjusted her hair and said, "Sir, the library is closing."

"Would you like to grab something to eat? My treat, of course."

"I'm sorry, what?" Alicia's mind raced as she tried to piece together why he asked and how she should respond. She thought of twelve denials, but each sounded ruder than the last.

"If it's not too much trouble, it would be nice to chat over a meal."

Alicia picked a denial and opened her mouth, but she heard Jeff's words in her head. "Yes, that does sound nice. Where do you want to go?"

"I'll leave the choice up to you. However, you might want to sort your hair out first."

"My hair?" She ran a hand over her hair and felt a tangle of knots and stray ends. "Oh, I'll be right back."

Alicia went to the staff bathroom and tempered her energy into a comb, attacking her hair and drenching it until it stayed flat. After she straightened out her clothes and dusted a wood shaving off her pants, she guided the grovyle out of the library and locked the doors.

"So, where to?"

"I'll need to look first." Alicia glanced down the street, squinting her eyes to read each sign. She noted each restaurant and estimated their price ranges. She first considered the cheaper options, then she thought that it wouldn't hurt to have something tastier at someone else's expense and chose slightly nicer-looking restaurant. The front was decorated with wood paneling, and the restaurant's name was etched onto a lustrous slab of cherrywood.

"That one down the street looks nice," Alicia said. "Why don't we try that?"

As they got closer, she tried to look at the name on the sign, but the sunlight reflecting off the wood made it difficult to read. She could only make out the first two letters, Ta-.

Save for the hostess, the restaurant was empty. The interior was decorated in the same faded wood as the exterior, with artfully decorated paper lamps and tapestries hanging from the ceiling. Twenty round tables with lusciously cushioned seats, five small booths, and ten booths designed for larger pokemon all had plates and silverware set out, napkins folded into pyramids, and glasses turned up-side down.

The hostess, an immaculately groomed lopunny in a black dress, smiled and bowed as they entered.

"Welcome to Takeya, table for two?"

Alicia felt her skin freeze. She looked towards the door and started thinking of an excuse to leave the restaurant.

"Yes mam, thank you." The waitress grabbed two menus and escorted them to the nearest table. Alicia had to take a deep breath before sitting down.

"I'm sorry, this is one of the priciest restaurants in town, and I didn't mean to impose on you so much."

The grovyle opened his menu and said, "This isn't that expensive. So, what should we start with?"

Alicia opened hers and gawked at the prices inside. She skimmed the list for the cheapest item on the menu and suggested it.

"There's no need to be modest." He reached into his robe, took out a bundle of bills, and handed it to Alicia. Hands shaking, she skimmed through the bills and saw that he had enough to buy half the menu.

"Who are you?"

"I'm Arkus," he said, holding out his hand. "And you are?"

"A – Alicia." She shook hands and asked, "But why haven't I heard of you?"

"I find displaying my wealth distasteful," he said, taking the bills and returning them to his robes, "And I prefer to stay out of the eyes of the public. Very few people have heard of me."

"How did you get all this money? I mean, I don't intend to pry, but it just seems so, so unexpected."

"It's okay to be cautious. It's all boring business stuff, working out negotiations and researching the market. Many corporations across the city pay me handsomely for my work. So, how about we take a closer look at the menu? Their seared wailmer steaks look quite tasty."

Three courses later, Alicia leaned back in her chair, massaging her gut. Half a chocolate cake sat in front of her, and the smell of warm chocolate sauce tempted her to eat the rest. The tables around them had started to fill up, and she could hear the pokemon at the nearest table muttering about them.

The waitress walked up to the table and asked, "Should I box that up, Miss?"

Alicia looked one last time at the cake before nodding, and the waitress whisked it away. Arkus scraped the last crumbs of cake off his plate and drained his glass of wine.

"So, I did say I had questions for you, if it's not too rude to ask."

"Ask whatever you want. You earned it."

"Alright then. Where can I find books on ancient history?"

"Wait, hold on a second." Alicia held a hand over her eyes and forced herself to keep an even facial expression. "You spent thousands of dollars on lunch with me, someone you hardly know, just to ask me that? There are books on the founding of Palsitore within the library."

"I read one. I'm looking for older material."

"What do you mean older? That's it. There's nothing before The Father ended the war between humans and pokemon."

"Nothing before the end of a war? Don't you see something wrong with that?"

Alicia rubbed her tongue against a bit of chocolate sauce stuck to the roof of her mouth, mulling over what he said as she savored the chocolate.

"The war itself is missing from history, from the fighting itself, to the start of it, to the degradation of human-pokemon relations that caused the war in the first place. Furthermore, for humans and pokemon to have been capable of such a great war, they needed to have some form of political and military system, both of which would require tens, if not hundreds of years to develop. Do you see why I'm not content with the history books as they are?"

"I see what you mean. The reason we have no records from before that time is because the war destroyed everything. There isn't a trace left from before the Era of the Father."

Arkus leaned forward and rested his chin on his hands. "In Ballinger's Modern Cookbook, page seventy-nine, it mentions an ingredient called molasses."

Alicia blinked and asked, "What's molasses?"

"I don't know. What I do know is no such ingredient has existed for the past six hundred years. So, I ask you, what is an ingredient no one has ever heard of doing in a modern cookbook? The author suggests it as an alternative for brown sugar without clarifying the identity of molasses, as though it were something any cook should know. Traces of that forgotten history are in everything, Alicia, and we need only look harder to see them."

"Wait, you actually read those books? How?"

"I'm gifted. It's part of the reason I'm paid so well." Arkus glanced down at the watch on his wrist and said, "I'm afraid I have business to attend to. Shall we do this again tomorrow?"

Alicia agreed without any hesitation. They shook hands before leaving Takeya, and she hummed to herself as she carried the rest of her chocolate cake home.


	5. Chapters 9-10

Chapter Nine: Eck

Eck woke himself earlier every day and even forced himself out of bed during odd hours in the night, but no matter when he checked, his master was always gone. It wasn't until the fourth morning that he saw Arkus again, drinking a cup of tea as he flipped through a newspaper. A paper bag sat on the counter next to him.

Instinctively, Eck greeted his master when he walked out of the bedroom. Arkus swallowed the last of his tea and set the newspaper aside.

"Today, we begin your training. But first, let's grab some breakfast."

"Yes master. I shall dress in appropriate clothes at once."

Arkus tossed the bag at him, and Eck caught it. He saw a bundle of clothes inside.

"Dress in those, and tell me if they don't fit."

Eck hastily bowed and went into the bedroom. He took out each article of clothing, marveling at how soft the fabric felt. Each article of clothing, from the shirt to the shoes was a shade of white that made the faintly cream-colored walls look yellow. There was also a matching wide-brimmed hat, but when he placed it on his head, the hat rattled around a touch.

Eck walked out in the new clothes and asked, "Is this acceptable, master?"

"You tell me. Does everything fit well?"

"The hat's a little loose," Eck answered, "but everything else fits perfectly."

"Hand it to me." Eck saw the pokemon's hands glow blue as he touched the hat, and he saw the hat warp in his grip. When Arkus handed the hat back, it fit snugly on his head.

They ate breakfast at a café down the street, and then Arkus took him further into the city. At first, Eck believed they were heading to the training facility, but after a left turn, he realized they were heading away from it.

"Pardon me, master," Eck asked as they walked, "but where are we going?"

"We need somewhere quiet and empty for you to practice. I just acquired the perfect location last night, which is why you've had a few days to yourself. Apparently, this place went on sale after police shot it up, and I bought it up at a low price. Ah, here we are."

17B was painted on the front in large white print, and the front of the building was riddled with bullet holes. Arkus walked inside and Eck followed him. The warehouse had the faint smell of blood, and the ceiling had a man-sized hole in it.

"Good, there aren't that many people around tonight. Tell me what you can feel around you."

"Well, master, I feel something coming from you. It feels like sunlight, but colder. There's so much of it, it feels like I'm drowning."

"What do you feel now?" The power flowing out of Arkus subsided, leaving the room feeling eerily empty.

"Nothing, master."

"Good. Try to hit me."

"How much force should I use, master?"

"All of it. Do everything you can, and pay attention to how you move."

Eck threw a quick punch, and his fist flew past Arkus, making him stumble. Arkus swept his foot underneath Eck's legs, making him tumble to the floor. Eck sprang onto his feet and swung again, this time, keeping his feet firmly planted. Arkus ducked beneath the blow and shoved Eck in the chest, but he didn't fall. Arkus maneuvered around him and shoved him from behind, but Eck stepped forward, whirled, and swung a punch.

"Good, you're keeping your balance, but you're not sensing my movements. Try again."

They sparred for another half-hour, and though Eck stared at his master's eyes, watching for hints of his next move, he could never predict where he'd move next. On his last punch, Arkus blocked it with one hand.

"Wait, something isn't right. You're relying too much on your eyes."

"Then how else will I be able to sense your movements?"

"Do you need your eyes to sense the energy I have?"

Eck said no, and Arkus tore off a piece of his robe for a blindfold. Once it was tied over his eyes, he ordered Eck to come at him again. At first, Eck threw conservative punches, never moving his feet and always facing the same direction. As Arkus' prodding became harder and faster, Eck was forced into a state of hyper-awareness, every rustle of feet like boulders grinding together, every swing of a fist like a gale rushing through trees, and every trace of his master's presence like an oven. After another hour, Eck started to dodge some of the shoves. An hour later, Arkus started blocking some of the punches instead of dodging them.

"You're making excellent progress," Arkus said after blocking another punch. "Let's take a break so I can tell you about the power you're sensing."

Arkus slid aside a panel in the floor and opened up the icebox underneath. He took out a metal thermos of chilled tea and two mugs, pouring tea into both of them. As they drank down the tea, Arkus told Eck about Aura, how minute traces of it resided in everything, how the vast majority of Aura is contained by crystals within the earth, how, through centuries of exposure to the crystals, his body acquired much of the world's Aura and an ability to manipulate it that surpasses the mightiest of natural forces. He also revealed Aura's ability to contaminate life – the reason he cannot use excessive quantities of Aura.

"Should too much Aura be released into the world, it shall seep into living creatures, breaking apart the tissues holding them together. This is why I must wait for the perfect moment."

"The perfect moment to do what?"

"Pay a debt I owe." Arkus swallowed the last of his tea and stood up. "Let's continue. You still haven't learned to read Aura spots."

Eck stood up and threw a quick punch, which Arkus ducked under. "And what are Aura spots?"

"They're weak spots in a person's body. Whenever someone moves their body improperly, it causes Aura to gather where the muscles and blood flow are most restricted. Striking at such a spot can leave your opponent powerless, like this."

Arkus struck too quickly for Eck's eyes to follow, just underneath his right shoulder blade, and his entire arm went numb. He hopped back and rubbed his drooping arm.

"You're keeping your arms bunched too closely together. I can understand wanting to protect your core, but it leaves your shoulders vulnerable."

After a minute, his arm started moving again, and they resumed training. Though he got steadily closer to landing a hit on his master, Eck still could not see the spots. After a wild punch sent him reeling, Arkus backed off.

"Let's call it a day. I trust you can find your own way back."

"Pardon me, master, but aren't you returning home as well?"

"I have work to do."

"Then would you like my assistance?"

Arkus turned around, staring into his eyes. "You're trying to find out what I do."

Eck froze, subconsciously holding his breath as sweat gathered on the palms of his hands.

"Answer me, Eck."

"Yes master. Forgive me master."

Arkus walked forward, and Eck flinched as Arkus placed a paw on his shoulder.

"I can understand the curiosity. A random stranger with lots of money buys you out of the blue and starts teaching you how to use a strange power. I'm an assassin, at least for the moment." Arkus handed him another wad of hundreds and told him, "Get yourself a drink, get home, and don't tell anyone. I trust you have some idea of what would happen if you did."

Arkus pulled a sniper rifle that Eck could have sworn wasn't there a second ago and leapt through the hole in the ceiling. Eck ran out of the warehouse, but by the time he opened the door, Arkus had vanished into the evening sky.

Eck first stopped by a post office and paid for an envelope, a piece of paper, and a wad of sealant. He stopped by a café and nibbled on a biscuit with berries inside as he wrote his message. Once he was done, he spat on the sealant, worked it into a sticky paste in his hand, slathered it onto the edges of the envelope flap, and pressed it shut.

After finishing the last crumbs of his biscuit, he walked down a few blocks to the Trimrose Tavern, a bar decorated with vibrant red-colored floral patterns, slender chandeliers, and stout wooden tables that, beneath the smell of liquor and sweat, still held the fragrance of cedar. The slim serving girls carried trays of thick glass tankards, placing one in front of each patron holding a bill in their hand. Four other girls manned the bar, mixing drinks and collecting tips.

Eck walked up to the bar and sat in front of an auburn-haired woman with a white patch over her left eye. She smiled at him and poured him a mug.

"Haven't seen you around for a few weeks. How's your new master?"

"Heh, hello Sara. I guess you heard about it from Tas. He's fine, better than Siru in some ways. Speaking of Tas, some chick had the bright idea of having me pass on a letter to him instead of giving it to him herself. I don't know when I'll see him next, so could you give that to him next time he passes by?"

"Ooh, is she blonde or brown-haired? Auburn maybe?"

"Black. She's the sort of pretty that leaves you wondering if she'll take a knife to your throat."

Sara's eyes narrowed, and she said, "Really Eck? You, scared of a girl? She must really be something then."

"Prettier than you'd ever believe. I have no idea how he got lucky enough to get in bed with a woman like her."

Sara reached under the counter and grabbed two bottles. She mixed together a green-colored shot. As she placed the shot in front of him, she leaned over and whispered in his ear.

"You know you can leave anytime. They can make a new identity for you, and you can still carry out your work for the savior."

"Not this time," he whispered. Then he leaned back and said, "Make sure that no one reads that letter before Tas gets his hands on it. I wouldn't hear the end of it if the rumor mill got a hold of whatever's in that letter.

"No promises," Sara said with a wink. "You know I can't resist some juicy secrets. You stay safe now, you hear? I don't want you breaking your other leg."

Eck paid for his drinks and answered, "I'll do my best."

Chapter 10: Richard Fale

"Ugh, this coffee tastes like shit."

"Sorry, sir, Lorenzo's doesn't open 'til four. I had to walk around a few blocks to find something else."

Dussell swallowed the last of his coffee and slammed the flimsy paper cup on the table. "It's fine, Fale." He spread out the Jennings files on the table and asked, "So, did you get the mess with the kid sorted out?"

"Fuck, that was a nightmare. I first had to sort through mountains of paperwork just to find the kid's parents, then there was the whole sob story they shoved down my throat, followed by two sets of paperwork and a press conference, which, by the way, you were supposed to be present for. I gave them the usual 'you were busy with another case' bullshit, by the way."

"Good. So, I found a witness yesterday that gave a detailed description of the assassin. The details are on this sheet of paper."

Richard Fale picked up and read the description. "You know, if this was a legitimate investigation, we could have a sketch artist make posters, and we could have this guy in custody within an hour."

"There's no point in thinking about other scenarios. Worry about the one we're in right now."

"Okay then, assuming that we actually find this guy, are we even going to be able to get an arrest warrant?"

"Let me worry about that."

"Do we even know how the assassin picks up his contracts?"

"He uses a different proxy every time, completely untraceable. Going after their descriptions gave me nothing."

Richard set down his cup of coffee. "Wait, you mean you can't even find the guys picking up the contracts? How the hell is this guy doing it?"

"That's what so unsettling. Everything about this case is impossible. Hell, even my own dad doesn't know who it is, and he's the one putting out the contracts." Dussell looked up at Fale's shocked expression and said, "That does not leave this room."

"Or your pops will put a hit on me, I got it." Fale nudged his cup around the table, pushing papers out of its path, and then he stopped and asked, "What if we put out a hit for him?"

"What, hire assassins to kill him? I want him arrested, not dead."

"Face facts, Chief. You're not getting a warrant on this guy, especially if he's your old man's favorite hitman. Either the assassins will do their job, and you won't have to worry about him anymore, or they'll die, and we'll have that many more clues to work with."

"It'll be expensive, not to mention I'll be risking my job."

"You're already putting your job on the line for this, and you have an enormous salary. Also, I'm willing to bet the other assassins are a little tight on money, seeing that all their business went elsewhere. Give me twenty k and a copy of the files, and I'll get a few assassins after him."

Dussell drew a knife from the inside of his jacket and twirled it in his hand. "You're a little too well-connected for my tastes."

"Promotions are all about connections, both high and low," Fale answered, watching every movement of the knife. "You don't get anywhere without being part of the family or getting your hands dirty. Often both."

Dussell gathered up all the papers and slid them into a manila folder. "How soon can you hire them?"

"How soon can you get the money?"

Dussell took his knife and slid the blade across the palm of his hand, taking a few drops of blood and forming a circle in the air, filling it with a geometric pattern. The circle glowed with violet light, and a hole through reality formed in the circle. Dussell reached inside and grabbed two wads of money, setting them on the table. Fale picked one up and sifted through it.

"One hour," Richard answered.

Dussell handed him the papers and the rest of the cash. "Take those, they're copies anyways."

"Yes sir."

Richard grabbed his pistol, threw on a bulletproof vest, and dumped the money in a sealed police evidence bag before leaving the station. As he walked deeper into the labyrinth of narrow, dank alleyways, his hand strayed closer and closer to his holstered gun.

He took a blind turn down an alley and stumbled over a body, dropping the bag onto the pavement. He turned around, a swear word on the tip of his tongue, but his body froze when he saw the body had multiple bullet wounds through its chest. The medicham, sitting in a pool of his own coagulating blood, seemed to be reaching for a half-empty bottle.

Fale backed away and slumped against a wall. He stared at the body, breathing through his hand to keep the stench of blood and decay out of his nose. Despite his efforts, Fale found himself with a strong urge to retch onto the begrimed concrete.

Prying his eyes away from the corpse, Richard glanced around the alley and up at the buildings, opened the bag, and took out a wad of cash. He pressed the money against his nose, breathing in the paper's odor.

"I swear, one day, I'll fill a bathtub with vodka and drink till I drown." He returned the money, resealed the bag, and continued down the alley. "It'll be in a nice apartment, not a penthouse, but definitely one of the bigger ones on the higher floors. The elevator will play music, soothing music, and there'll be a bellboy to carry my things. No, screw the bellboy, I can carry my own damn things. I'll have a radio, a good one, and it'll play brawling matches nonstop. A beautiful wife waiting at home, cooks well enough, looks good, doesn't argue or complain or make my life any harder."

He thought of the corpse again and shuddered. "But if I want those things, I have to do this first. No choice, this is the way to the top."

He took a right turn and walked down a dead-end alley. Just past a garbage can, he knocked against a wooden door painted to resemble the brick around it. A panel slid aside, and yellow eyes peered at him.

"Richie, eh? Come on in."

Two deadbolts slammed into place, and the door opened. Fale walked past the empty, battered tables and sat at the bar, rubbing his fingers over the holes left by knives and claws.

An electabuzz, eyes glazed over with a pasty white film, walked out of the back room and poured Fale a glass of vodka.

"Good to have you back, Richie," the electabuzz said, feeling around the bar as he returned the bottle. What can I do for you?"

"Good to see you too, Pearlies. I need an assassin, preferably a group."

"You're in luck. Assassins got a whole lot cheaper over the past few days. In fact, there's a skilled pair of assassins here right now, looking for work."

Fale looked around the room, but all the tables appeared empty. Then he saw a mug float into the air and tip slightly before returning to a table. His blood turned to ice, and his glass slid through his fingers, tumbling onto the counter with a muffled thunk.

"Bonz, Larr, why don't you come over here and greet this gentleman?" Pearlies asked. "He's got an offer for you."

Richard strained his hearing, but he heard nothing as the two invisible assassins left their seats, walked over to the bar, and sat down on either side of him. He flinched when the kecleon twins revealed themselves. Bonz, the one on his left, was a dark charcoal color with yellow-tipped spines, while Larr was a lighter shade of silver with faint blue streaks across his face.

"Who do you want us to kill?" Larr asked. Fale slid the folder to the right, and Larr leafed through the papers.

"I don't have to tell you how dangerous this mission would be, right?"

"What does it say?" Bonz asked.

"He wants us to kill the Miracle Sniper."

"Is he that skilled?" Fale asked.

"We can kill him," Larr answered, "easy as cutting an orange. I'm more worried about the family. They won't be happy when their favorite assassin turns up with a slit throat. So, how much?"

"Twenty thousand."

A knife was pressed against his throat before he could blink, and he could feel the blade pressing a shallow gash into his throat.

"Who do you take us for?" Bonz whispered in his ear. "Some second-rate group of amateurs that don't even know which end of a knife to hold?"

"Bonz, enough," Larr said. "We'll take the job. Five thousand up front, and the rest once the job is finished. He'll be dead by midnight. Meet here tomorrow morning with the rest of the money."

"But – but brother, we're worth so much more!"

"If we don't take this job, this will be the last job offer we'll ever receive. Do you really want to go back to the butcher houses?"

Bonz withdrew the knife, and Richard wiped the blood from his neck. He opened the bag and split one of the stacks in half.

"Let's go, Bonz," Larr said, taking the money and walking for the bar. Fale took a few deep breaths once they were gone.

"I never understand why they creep you out so much," Pearlies said as he cleaned a mug. "So, would you care for another one?"

Fale glanced out the door and saw the first hint of dawn on the horizon. "Thanks, but I gotta get going."

He took a longer route back to the office, avoiding the corpse in the alley, slipped Dussell a short note updating him on the deal, and spent the rest of the day sorting through a small mountain of paperwork concerning the warehouse 17B incident, all the while dreaming of the furniture he'll add to his apartment in the clouds.


	6. Chapters 11-12

Chapter 11: Alicia de Renera

The leftover cake hadn't fared that well. The chocolate filling had solidified into a gelatinous goop, and the cake was saturated with water. Despite that, it made for an excellent breakfast and had Alicia humming a tune on her way to the library. She picked up a sandwich for lunch and left it in the staff lounge's icebox.

As she sorted through the day's returns, she kept an eye on the door, but hours passed before Arkus entered the library. He passed by the counter without a word and picked up a stack of books, however, he did wave when she shelved books near his table.

After lunch, she took out her box of rough wood and shuffled through the pieces. One, slightly wider and smoother than the rest, caught her eye. She first sculpted the exterior, shaving off the branches and smoothing it out. She flattened one side and shaped the other into a rounded end like a thumb. Setting the wood onto the counter, she gouged out the wood at the top, forming a head beneath a hood. Working from memory, she etched Arkus' features into the wood. The finished piece, though finely crafted, was hidden beneath the shadow of its hood. Alicia shaved slivers off the hood until light reached the carved face.

Arkus waited for her to clean up the library and straighten up her hair. He leaned against a bookshelf, flipping through a dictionary as she walked towards him.

"So, are we doing dinner today?" Alicia asked.

"Sure. Do you have anything in mind?"

Alicia took him to a bar in the wealthier northern district of the city, a squat brick building with stained glass windows, vibrantly colored furniture, and a bar composed of a patchwork quilt of asymmetric wooden pieces fused together with pine resin. Their mugs had beads of colored glass pressed into them, and their platters of fried fish came with glittering red paper.

"Well, how is it?" Alicia asked after Arkus took a chunk of fish, dipped it in tartar sauce, and chewed.

"You were right. Crunchy, yet tender, with a bit of sweet and spice mixed together. It's wonderful."

"I come here once in a while, when I feel like treating myself. I don't ever get the beer, though."

Arkus took a swig from his mug and rubbed the foam from his mouth. "I didn't use to either, but one day, I thought I might as well. When you live long enough, you begin to realize you should enjoy yourself."

"I don't see anything enjoyable about hangovers. Anyways, why were you late today?"

"I had some unexpected business last night." Arkus rubbed the space between his eyes and muttered, "Had to get cleaned up afterwards too."

"Cleaned up? After a business meeting?"

Arkus picked up another piece of fish and chewed it before answering. "It gets awfully sweaty sitting around in a suit for hours. I also had to get the suit cleaned. I spilled a bit of coffee on it."

"I see. Wait, why was the business meeting at night?"

"Because everyone's busy running their businesses during the day. Well, most of them. So, how about you? Is anything keeping you busy?"

"Me? No, not really. All I do is run the library. Well, wait, there is the family meeting next week. Ugh, that's going to be a pain."

"Why? You don't get along with your family?"

"It's my mother," Alicia said, taking a sip of her water. "She always badgers me about finding a husband, and about how weak I am, just like my father."

"Then let's get engaged."

"Engaged?" Alicia asked as she scooped some fish onto her fork. "Wait, do you mean that kind of engaged?" The fork slipped out of her hand and landed on her plate with a clang.

"It works out for both of us. I get access to the records I'm looking for, and you get a placated mother."

"Isn't it a little soon? We only just met!"

"There'd be plenty of time for us to get to know each other while we're married." Arkus raised his tankard and swallowed the last of his beer. "When you think about it, a marriage is nothing more than a mutually beneficial agreement between two people. Love's not a requirement, just willingness to commit to the terms."

"Well, don't you need an engagement band?"

"There's a jeweler's a few blocks down. How about we find one that you like?"

Alicia ran through her dialogue choices in her head, but she was paralyzed by the suddenness of the proposal. She followed in silence as Arkus left a hundred on the counter, wound his way through the crowded streets, and entered the jewelry shop. Bands, earrings, and necklaces of all shapes, sizes, and compositions were propped up in wooden display cases behind glass covers. One glass cabinet held silver-wrought engagement and wedding bands, inlaid with diamonds, emeralds, and sapphires.

A mienshao, standing at the center of the shop behind a circle of display cases, greeted them when they entered the shop.

"Welcome to the Kelsen Family Jewelry Shop! Is there anything I can get you today?"

"Yes, an engagement band."

"En- certainly!" The mienshao's hands fumbled with the keys as she walked around the cases over to the engagement bands. She unlocked the two padlocks at the top and bottom of the display case, swung the glass doors open, and plucked a band off the shelf.

"I presume the engagement band is for her?" she asked, holding the band towards Alicia. "Would you care to try it on?"

"No need. It's a flawed piece."

"E-excuse me sir? We only offer the finest quality work here!"

"There's a flaw in the metal, running just underneath the top emerald. It wouldn't take longer than a year for it to crack in half. The middle emerald also has a slight chip missing from the base, and the bottom one has an internal fracture."

The mienshao held the band up at the light and squinted at it. "I don't see anything wrong with it, sir. Well then, how about this one?"

"This one was cooled too slowly. The silver's deformed, and it'll lose its shape over time. The middle sapphire has a small crack but it's nothing readily visible. Let's see the one on the top, with the ruby and diamonds."

"Ah, excellent eye, sir, this one was made with the highest quality gems hewn from the Nazrick Mines. The metalwork was done by my grandfather, a master smith renowned for his skill and attention to detail."

Arkus held up the band and rubbed the ruby. "Those are good diamonds, and the metalwork is incredible, but the ruby's a fake. You can tell by the orange flecks in the crystal."

The shop attendant locked the cabinet and said, "If you came here solely to insult my grandfather's work, then I shall have to ask you to leave."

A door at the far end of the shop opened, and an elderly mienshao hobbled into the room, leaning against the display cases. The shop attendant rushed over and leaned him onto her shoulder.

"Grandfather! You shouldn't be out of bed!"

"That's enough, Katia. We shouldn't be discourteous to our guests."

"But he's insulting your craftsmanship!"

"The man is correct, and his judgment even surpasses mine. I always suspected that ruby was a fake, but I could never prove it. Tell me, what are you doing here, buying from my shop? You would know the sad state of my affairs if you had any part in the gem industry."

"I'm a business mediator. Part of my job is inspecting the quality of goods."

"A mediator?" The old mienshao rubbed his forehead. "Then perhaps it was fate that brought you to my shop, that is, if you're willing to hear out the request of a selfish old man. This past year, my health has rapidly declined, and I am both unable to forge metal and travel to meet with the Nazrick Executives. Since I can't go, and my son doesn't have the gift to tell good gems from bad, we've been cheated this past year."

"So, you need me to negotiate a new deal?"

"The next shipment is this evening. I understand it is so soon, and that you are undoubtedly busy─"

"What would you offer in exchange?"

"I will make your engagement band myself, free of charge, and I'll make it the finest work I have ever done."

"Grandfather! The doctor said you can never─"

"Kayla, I will not allow my shop to rot any longer. Do not interrupt again." He turned to Arkus and asked, "Will you do it?"

"Yes. Alicia, you should probably go home. There's no telling how long it'll take, and you look like you've had a long day."

It wasn't until he pointed it out that Alicia noticed her eyes burned with drowsiness, her feet ached, and her concentration slipped like soap.

"Yes, you're right. See you tomorrow."

Alicia walked home, threw her clothes off, and plopped onto her bed. She buried herself in the mattress and closed her eyes, but she couldn't stop thinking about the engagement. Her mind raced around the questions she had, filling her head with a buzzing sound that she couldn't shut out by covering her ears.

After an hour of listless rest, Alicia shoved herself out of bed and walked over to the sink. She drank a few mouthfuls of water and rinsed off her face. On her way back to bed, she glanced at the telephone sitting on the small wooden table. She sat down in the chair next to it, dialed a number on the rotary, and waited for the line to connect.

"Why are you calling Alicia? I suppose it's to offer an excuse for not going to the family meeting."

"I'm engaged."

"What?"

"We've been eating dinner together for some time now, and he just proposed to me today. I thought you should know."

Alicia waited. For a minute, there was only silence from the other end, then the line disconnected with a clank. Alicia set the phone down and returned to bed. She smiled as she drifted off to sleep.

Chapter 12: Eck

Eck sat alone in the apartment, sliding a glass of water across the counter as he thought of Arkus. He returned early that morning, covered head to toe in blood, and he left minutes later without saying a word. Eck searched for the bloodied robe, but no traces of the incident remained, not even the blood-smeared footsteps and the handprint on the counter.

As sunset approached, Eck decided to pay the Trimrose a visit. Sara saw him enter and had a tankard waiting for him. Underneath it was an envelope.

"Tas left you a message for his lady-friend," Sara said as she wiped a rag over a puddle of spilled beer. "I guess you're their letter-boy now. Oh, and he told me to make sure you don't open it."

"All the more reason to open it." Eck snapped the wax seal open and hunched over the note inside as he read it.

 _Ask him if the name Izzo means anything. Only the Savior knows that name. If he is not, then I leave the rest in your hands._

Eck tipped the envelope upside-down, and a bronze needle tumbled onto the counter. Eck snapped it up before it could roll off.

"Be careful with that," Sara warned him. "You wouldn't want Tas to find out you were searching through his mail."

"Hey, what does he expect? If he really wants to keep his messages private, he should deliver them himself."

Eck returned the needle to the envelope and resealed it. Then he drank half the mug in one prolonged swallow, slamming the tankard onto the bar with a breath of satisfaction.

"Might as well enjoy it. It could be my last one for a while."

Sara lowered her eyes. "Don't say that. How would I keep the Trimrose in business without your money?"

Eck placed twenty dollars on the bar and stood up. "Have a good evening, and tell Tas I said hi."

Arkus was folding a suit on the counter when Eck returned. The glossy black silk had gray embroidery along the hems, and the buttons were plated with silver. He folded and refolded each piece until the seams in the material overlapped the folds before placing them on hangars and putting them in the closet.

"Went out for a drink?"

"Yes sir. I hope you don't mind."

"Not at all. I had some unexpected business to attend to today." He looked at Eck and said, "Not that kind of business. Well, sort of."

"Pardon me, master, but does the name Izzo mean anything to you? I've been trying to recall where I heard it before."

As he waited for a response, he could sense Aura gathering in Arkus' right arm. He slowly inched his hand into his pocket, wrapping his fingers around the needle. He had it pulled halfway out of his pocket when he heard something hit the floor. It was a drop of blood. He looked at Arkus' hand and saw drops of blood squeezed between his fingers.

"Where did you hear that name?" Arkus' voice was flat enough for a game of billiards.

"Is something wrong master?"

Arkus strode forward and grabbed Eck by the collar with his bloody hand, smearing blood all over his neck. "Who told you that name?"

"Are you the Savior?"

Arkus' hand tightened, and Eck choked out "Lorende." Arkus dropped him, and Eck took deep breaths as he massaged his throat.

Arkus soaked a rag and washed his cuts cleaned, and then he tossed the rag to Eck. "Clean yourself up, then lead the way."

"Where are we going?"

"To see her." Eck unfolded the suit and put it on, knotting his tie without touching it. "It's been six hundred years since we last spoke, so I might as well stop by and say hello."

Once they reached the brothel, Eck shoved the door open, kicked the bed into the wall, and strode down the stairs. Four guards fired guns at him, and he ducked under the shots. He kicked two into a wall, punched the third in the gut, and knocked out the fourth with a blow to the neck. They ran into more guards, but Keith modified his appearance, and they let him pass without a second glance.

Down another flight of stairs was a long corridor, at the end of which was a small iron door. Two guards carrying shotguns stood at either side of the door, and they raised the guns when they saw him.

"No one enters without the Lady's permission. Take another step and we will shoot."

"I have business with her," Arkus answered. "Tell her that─"

A heavy knock came from the iron door. "Let him pass," Lorende said. "You would do well to show the Savior more respect."

The guards opened the door and threw themselves onto the floor as he passed. Arkus took a seat and waved for Eck to take the one next to him.

Lorende's private study was an iron-walled bunker, adorned with paintings, lush furniture, and a chandelier. The walls were painted silver, the wooden floors were a darker shade of the same color, and the furniture had blue and silver hues. A large silverwood desk, with papers sorted into shelves at the side, occupied most of the room, while three chairs around the desk took up the remaining space.

A tall, slender woman sat in the desk, holding a pen in her hand as she attentively looked at Arkus. Her long white hair was tied neatly in a bun, and her silver glasses glinted in the light of the chandelier. Her clothes were red silk that drew eyes away from the room.

"Welcome back, Keith. You're looking well."

"As are you. Last I saw you, you were just a pile of pink goo."

Lorende glanced at Eck and asked, "Shouldn't we have this conversation in private?"

"He's vital to my plan. The more he hears, the better."

Lorende squeezed the pen in her fingers and said, "If you insist. It took me many years to acquire enough control over this body to change its appearance. Deep down, I'm still goo."

"Is that why you never touch anyone?" Eck asked. When Lorende looked at him, he shrunk into his chair and looked down at his feet.

Lorende pulled a pile of papers out of a shelf and passed them towards Arkus. "Here's a report on everything you should know. Over the last five hundred years, I have created a finance and information network to provide you with everything you need. I own six corporations, each with a reservoir of untraceable funds, and a spy network with over a thousand members. If there's anything you need to know or have, I can get it for you."

"You handle relations between those corporations? I'll need records made as proof that I'm a business mediator."

Lorende grabbed for another set of papers and handed them over. "I already planned that cover story for you, among several others. In there are the specifics of the negotiations you're mentioned in, and the name's left blank so you can change it. Anything else?"

"That's all I'll need. Thank you."

"Let me know when you need anything else." Lorende took out a sheet of paper and began frantically scribbling notes.

"I won't be needing more help."

Lorende's pen froze over the paper. "Wait, what? How are you going to get the information and funds you need to kill the Father?"

"I've taken care of both of those."

"You'll need contacts to get close to him."

"I have those as well."

Lorende stood up and faced the wall. "I – I don't understand. I spent five hundred years building all of this, because Ty'mir said you would need me. He predicted everything – what he would do, when you would return, all of it."

"He also predicted your death, didn't he? That's the only reason you would go through all this trouble."

Lorende rubbed her fingernails together. "Not just mine. Every single pokemon will die if I don't help you. So please, stop trying to do everything on your own. I made you. You're not powerful enough to take on the Family."

"It'll be easier than you realize. Have those papers ready and at my apartment by tomorrow."

"Alright. Do you mind if I borrow Eck for a moment? I have questions for him."

"Go ahead. Eck, return to the apartment once you're done. Get yourself something to eat as well."

Once Arkus left, Lorende closed the door with a wave of her hand. Eck stared down at the desk and waited for her to speak. As she kept silent, Eck started counting the emptiness. He reached two hundred before she spoke.

"He was human once. Arkus, I mean. In his dying moments, I made him what he is. I need you to make sure he doesn't act alone."

"I understand."

"Good. May the Savior be with you always."


	7. Chapters 13-14

Chapter 13: Dussell de Baltham

Dussell kept the door closed as he read through Fale's report on the murdered assassins. Fale sat in the chair, twiddling his fingers and tapping his foot against a chair leg.

The report contained a brief summary of the autopsy report, a hypothesized outline of the course of events, and photographs of the crime scene. One kecleon was shot in the head, and the other was crushed against a wall, held in midair by his coagulated blood and the indentation in the concrete.

"Did you ID the bullet?"

"Yes sir. Unit four also calculated the bullet's velocity. Everything matches the previous cases."

"Everything… except the second victim. You are certain the assassin didn't have any accomplices?"

"We can't be sure. Forensics hasn't turned up anything yet."

"I see. Anything else to report?"

"Yes sir. The coroner called. He thinks he has a homicide case."

"Thinks?"

"Yes sir. Four men at Nazrick's mines died in a cave-in. However, the coroner found a bullet wound in one of the victims. High caliber, no breaks in the skull."

"The assassin?"

"Probably sir. Sixteen went off to the coroner's."

"Does anyone else know yet?"

"No sir."

Dussell drained his mug of coffee and grabbed his jacket. "Tell them I'm out looking into another homicide case. And if Heste comes, tell her I'll be home for dinner."

"Understood sir. I'll keep tabs on the assassins. Give me a call if you need anything."

Dussell took a squad car and drove to the Nazrick corporate building. The tall, sleek building towered over the mines surrounding it. At the very top, in large steel blocks, was the company's name and logo. The mines were sealed with gleaming power-locked metal doors, and guards stood at the entrance of each mine.

Dussell flashed his badge and walked past the guards at the corporate building's doors. The operator took him to the building's top floor and escorted him to the CEO's office.

The CEO, an aged ursaring with hints of grey fur around his face, sat behind a chiseled stone desk. An assortment of sapphires and emeralds studded his chair, and a large gleaming diamond held down a pile of papers.

The concrete wall was lined with paintings of forests and rivers. There were light squares all along the wall, matching the sizes of the frames.

"Did you move those paintings recently?"

"Oh yes," the CEO answered. "I thought it time for those spots of the wall to get a little light, but I imagine you didn't come all this way to talk about artwork."

"No I didn't. I came because the coroner found a bullet wound in one of the cave-in victims."

"A – a bullet wound? Oh come now, surely it must've been a pick-axe or metal spike. There was quite a bit of metal debris."

"The wound went clean through. There's no mistaking it, one man was shot and I need to know why."

The ursaring rubbed his meaty paws together and sighed. "Jewel thieves. Those bastards tried to make off with a shipment and shot a few guards. They even set off dynamite in the caves to escape. We wanted to keep it under wraps so our investors wouldn't sell their stock."

"It takes a high caliber bullet to pass clean through a person's skull, a higher caliber than anyone makes. It just so happens that I'm after an assassin who specializes in high-caliber sniping. So, what really happened here?"

"Assassin? I – I don't know what you're talking about. If that's all you're here to do, then I must ask you to leave."

"Do you mind if I move one of those paintings first?"

"Don't you dare! Those are priceless works of art, and the slightest touch can ruin them!"

"Then I won't touch them." Dussell turned and waved his hand. The painting behind him slid to the left, revealing a bullet hole in the wall. A bullet, cracked into pieces, still sat in the hole.

When Dussell turned towards the CEO, he flinched. The ursaring had a pistol pointed at his own head.

"Don't come any closer, or I will shoot."

Dussell pulled out his own gun and trained it on the CEO's hand. He thought about crippling his hand, but he lowered the gun.

"Okay. Just take it easy. I'll back away." He holstered his gun and backed up until he hit the wall. With a thought, the bullet fragments slid into his coat pocket.

"Just go!"

"If you can just tell me—"

"I have nothing to say to you."

"Alright. I'm leaving. Have a pleasant day Mr. Nazrick."

Dussell asked the operator if he knew what happened. The operator pointed to his ears and shook his head. Dussell scanned the area for other witnesses and decided not to ask any more questions. He returned to the station, zipping through traffic and pedestrians on the way back. Fale was waiting, sipping a mug of coffee with his feet on his desk. When Dussell stormed in, Fale followed him into the office.

"Anything good chief?"

"It's a nightmare. He was there, alright, but Nazrick won't talk. He had a gun to his own head."

"Father almighty. That's fucked up. Any idea what happened?"

"The assassin killed four of his men in his office. Whatever he did, it has Mr. Nazrick too frightened to talk. Good news is, I got something."

Dussell took the bullet fragments from his pocket and placed them on his desk. Fale picked one up and twirled it in his fingers.

"Looks like one of his, alright. I'll have sixteen check the prints to be sure." Fale leaned forward and whispered, "So, you think the higher ups had an issue with Mr. Nazrick?"

"Only one way to find out. If you'll excuse me, I have a call to make."

"Yes sir. Let me know if you need anything else."

Once the door locked behind Fale, Dussell picked up the telephone. He had to call back three times before he got an answer.

"Is there something urgent?" he asked.

"Yes, it's about the Jenkins killer."

"I told you not to look into that any further."

"I am aware of that. However, I was looking into a different matter when I ran into his MO. Was he supposed to be at Nazrick Headquarters yesterday?"

"He had no such orders. What happened there?"

"Four of Nazrick's men were shot. Whatever happened, it scared him enough to hide the evidence and threaten suicide. What do you recommend?"

"I would like to hear your thoughts on the matter."

Dussell set the phone aside and let out a long sigh. He thumbed through the Jennings report and read the _low priority case_ note at the end.

"I don't think it's worth pursuing. A stern warning should be enough."

"Very good. Keep up the excellent work."

The line clicked. Dussell set the phone down and clenched his jaw. He snapped a pen in half and swept the papers off his desk. Ink dripped from his hands. He smeared it onto an old report and washed the rest off with cold coffee. He picked up the Jennings report and walked out of his office.

"Fale. I'm leaving. Let me know if anything happens."

"Yes sir. And, um, did it—" Fale looked at the office and fell silent.

Dussell returned early. Heste looked up from the pot of soup she was stirring and said, "I'll be damned. Was work okay?"

Dussell set the report on the table and sat down. "I don't want to talk about it."

"You won't feel any better unless you do." She set two bowls of soup on the table, and then she grabbed spoons and slid them in. She gave hers a brisk stir, blowing away a cloud of steam.

"You know I shouldn't. It's classified information."

Heste grabbed his bowl and pulled it to her side of the table. She crossed her arms and stared at him. A flicker of flames rose from her mane. With a deep breath, he handed her the report.

"Going to tell me not to work myself so hard again?"

Heste read and reread the report. Her soup grew cold as she examined the photographs and reviewed the autopsy results.

"You're right. This one's dangerous. But, you still shouldn't worry about it. It's not like he's powerful enough to take on a zoroark, and even if he is, there's nothing you can do about it."

"I wish I could stop worrying. But I can't."

"Sure you can. You're not trying hard enough." Heste set her bowl on the stove and reheated her soup before draining the bowl. "Come on, it's not every day you get home early. Let's have a little fun."

Dussell couldn't fall asleep. His mind wandered through the Jennings report, calculating motives, predicting the next target, formulating arguments for his arrest warrant. His dreams were tense phone calls and frenzied undercover operations. Heste, hearing his muttering and feeling his all-too-familiar restless movement, went and got him another blanket.

Chapter 14: Alicia de Renera

Alicia groggily clawed the fridge open, but it was empty. With a sleepy mumble, she put her coat on and went out. She stopped at the nearest breakfast café and ordered. It was only after she ate three stacks of waffles and a platter of scrambled eggs that she realized she left her wallet at home. She crammed her hands in her pockets in the vain hopes of finding her wallet and instead stumbled upon a thick wad of hundred dollar bills.

"How did that get in there?"

The waitress walked over and asked, "Would you like anything else miss?"

"Uh, two sandwiches to go please, and that'll be everything." She handed the waitress a hundred dollar bill and received the change with her sandwiches. She panicked when she saw the clock tower and raced towards the library. She was five minutes late, but no one stood outside the door. She walked up to the door and tried to unlock it, but it was already open. She walked inside and saw Maddie, her weekly reprieve, sorting the returns.

Arkus was at his usual table, reading a stack of books from the E's. He looked up when she came in and put his books back.

"I was wondering if you would be here today. So, should we get the paperwork filled out?"

"The paperwork?" Alicia's mind raced for a second, and then she remembered. "Oh, the engagement papers! Why didn't I remember sooner?"

"Don't worry, I had them fill it out for us. All that's left are the signatures."

The papers were waiting for them at City Hall. When Arkus told a receptionist his name, she pointed to a small private room. There, a large stack of papers sat next to her fifth cousin Aldrin de Ristoff. He plucked the top sheet and slid it towards them.

"Sign at the bottom, and everything's ready. If you like, you may review the documents before signing."

Arkus flipped through the pages and signed. Then he passed the pen to Alicia. The pen weighed heavily on her hand. She scanned through the pages, skimming through her own meager history as a librarian and into Arkus' immaculate past. Business negotiations, investments, marketing, economic projections, sales pitches, all listed in precise detail saturated the pages, crushing the engagement contract under their weight. Her thoughts clouded up, and sweat began to bead her brow. She could feel the lump of money in her pocket dragging her coat down. So much pressure. She debated dropping the pen and started piecing together the delicate words to worm her way out.

Then his words came to mind. "Too scared to take a chance, too scared to live, too scared too scared too scared, take a chance, live." She signed her name and pushed the papers away.

"Alright then." Aldrin picked up the stack and thumped them flat against the desk. Then he took out an envelope and handed it to Arkus. "Here's your invitation to the family meeting next week. I look forward to seeing you there."

Arkus took her to a Chanelle's Clothing Boutique in the Golden Corner shopping district. Before she realized what was happening, her measurements were taken and she was fitted with a slim, stunning blue dress that glimmered in the sunlight. Though the cloth swayed in the breeze, she felt trapped in the dress, weighed down by the fabric. With the same haste, the seamstress fastened a suit onto Arkus. The fabric seemed to fit him better than his own skin. She wanted nothing more than to get out of that dress, but her hands couldn't reach the buttons behind her back.

Next were the shoes. Though the cobbler assured her they were a perfect fit, the heels felt too tight, and her feet wobbled as she walked. Arkus had no problems with his shoes. His shiny black leather shoes seemed to float off the floor, so deftly and lightly he moved in them.

They stopped for lunch, then they went to a beauty salon. Three combs got tangled in her hair, and it took an hour for them to straighten it out. They slathered handfuls of nose-tingling gel into her hair, making it sag over her shoulders, and they hacked at the wayward wisps of hair with scissors. Arkus' leaf was gleaming like a polished stone within five minutes, and it hovered in the slightest breeze.

"Why don't we go see if the engagement band is done?" Arkus asked once they left the salon. "He said it would be done about now."

She numbly followed, balancing precariously on the heels. As she glanced around the street, she noticed people staring at her. Their gazes weighed upon her, and she shivered as she looked away.

"Um, everyone's staring."

"Of course they are. You look amazing."

"I do?" She glanced at a storefront window and saw her reflection. She hardly recognized herself. Then a thought came to her head: _I'm more beautiful than my mother._

The thought made her smile and gave her strength. The dress weighed nothing, and her hair danced in the breeze. But even as she told herself how magnificent she was, her doubts kept nagging at the back of her mind. Though her beauty was light as a feather, her smile felt heavier than iron chains.

Katia was waiting at the counter. She smiled when they walked through the door and ran into the other room. "Grandfather, they're here!"

"Oh, just in time too!" the jeweler's voice called from the other room. "I'll be right out!"

The elderly mienshao walked into the room, cradling an elaborate silver and sapphire band in his arms. He looked more energetic than the previous day, as though someone poured liquid sunshine into his bones.

"Hold out your arm, madam. Let's see if the fit's right."

Alicia held out her hand. The elder turned her palm up and slid the band onto her forearm. The metal felt cold as ice, and the sapphires glowed like distant, empty stars. He clicked the clasps on the metal into place, and the band of metal stuck itself together without any visible seams. Alicia looked closer, and she saw that the seams cleverly hid themselves within the rigid lines of the geometric interlace hammered into the silver.

"Well, how does it feel?" Arkus asked. She moved her arm around. The extra weight made it feel as though the arm belonged to a stranger.

"It fits well," she said. "It just feels a little strange."

"It'll take time to get used to it, I suppose."

"So," Alicia asked, "did your son make this?"

"Nope! I made it myself, and I daresay, it's the finest work I've ever done. And these sapphires! I've never seen lovelier sapphires in my life."

"But you were ill just yesterday."

The jeweler glanced at Arkus and said, "I couldn't bear to give anything than the best to such a lovely young woman. N-no sir!"

"Shall we get some dinner?" Arkus asked suddenly.

"Now? We didn't eat lunch too long ago."

"I imagine that by the time the food comes out, we'll be hungry again."

"Oh. Okay."

They meandered through the city streets, stopping at a few shops to browse. Arkus bought a few trinkets with a nonchalant flaunt of wealth, as though he spent for spending's sake. Once she was beginning to feel hungry, they walked into Takeya. He called for ever more elaborate dishes, eating enough for two, and asked for more to take home.

Arkus walked out of the restaurant carrying three bags. One of the handles slipped, and he set the bag down.

"Do you mind coming to my apartment? I don't think I can carry all this myself."

She picked up the bag and followed him. By the time they made it back, the sun had almost set. She walked in after him and set the bag of clothes on the counter.

"I thought it would be bigger."

"I'm not in my apartment often, so there's no point in getting a bigger one. I suppose it's getting a bit late for you to go back home, but I only have one bed. Well, there's the hammock, but that's Eck's."

"Who's Eck?"

The bedroom door opened, and Eck stopped at the doorway. Arkus pointed at him and said, "That's Eck, my brawler. Eck, this is my fiancée Alicia."

"You're in the brawling business too?"

"It's a new hobby. I bought him about a week ago. Anyways, it's too late for you to get back, so Eck and I will sleep out in the living room, and you'll have the bed."

"No, it's fine, you two can take the bedroom. I'll be fine with a chair. Honest."

"Then why don't we share the bed? In the purely platonic sense, of course. The bed's big enough."

Alicia felt her cheeks heat up, and she took a deep breath. "Well, I suppose that would work."

"I'll take a chair," Eck said.

After Alicia changed into her regular clothes, she hung up the dress and went to bed. Arkus was lying on the edge of the bed, giving her plenty of space.

"You don't have to sleep that far over. I mean, it's cold over there, isn't it?"

"Don't worry about it."

Alicia stared at the ceiling for a moment, then asked, "What did you buy all that stuff for?"

"No reason."

"Did you buy all that stuff just to get me here?"

There was a short pause before he said yes.

"You could've just asked."

"I didn't think you'd want to go. You seemed nervous. I wanted to ask you about that, actually. Are you feeling alright?"

"Well, I, it's, um, so sudden. It felt great at first, like a dream, but now it's so… real. Why me? You could've had anyone, but you picked me. Why? I'm not that pretty, my mother hates me, and I'm terrible around others. Why me?"

"I don't know. And you shouldn't be so hard on yourself." A moment later, he said, "I guess it's because you seemed as lonely as I was."

Silence fell between them. Alicia tried to sleep, but she couldn't stop herself from thinking. _Was he really lonely, with all that money? I suppose I would be too._ An idea came to her, and she debated it for a while before inching across the bed and lightly kissing him on the cheek.

"Goodnight," she whispered. Then she retreated to the far, cold side of the bed.


	8. Chapters 15-17

Chapter 15: Eck

He couldn't sleep. Alicia unnerved him, even more so since she was sleeping in the Savior's bed. There was an ineffable miasma about her, an aura that made his skin crawl.

Though he listened carefully, he couldn't hear anything. He debated listening outside the door before leaving. He told himself multiple times that his master's actions weren't any of his business as he walked downstairs.

It was quiet outside. Most of the lights had dimmed, but the occasional tavern and late night diner remained open. Eck walked towards the Trimrose, but out of the corner of his eye, he saw two green lights, like tiny stars, peering at him from a shadowy rooftop. He turned back, but the lights were gone.

The Trimrose was nearly empty. Tas and Muld sat at the bar, talking to Sara. Eck took a seat in between them.

"Eck! Good to see you!" Sara poured him a mug of beer.

"Hey Eck, I heard the good news," Muld said, giving him a hearty slap on the back. "You're a lucky bastard, getting trained by the Savior and all that. But don't think I'll go easy on you because of it."

Tas took a long swallow of beer and asked, "So, how is everything? You look worried."

"Well, I guess I am. Arkus… no wait, I shouldn't say anything."

"Are you sure?" Sara asked. "We need to make sure he stays safe. If he's in danger, let us know."

"I suppose, but it's not something I can just tell anyone."

"Tell Mistress Lorende then," Muld said. "You can do that, can't you?"

Eck chugged the entire mug of beer and wiped the foam off his face. "That's a good idea."

"Why don't I take you over there then?" Muld asked. "I was planning on visiting the girls anyways."

"But your reputation—"

"No one's going to see us. Let's go."

The streets were empty. Their footsteps echoed in between the buildings as they walked. Though he couldn't hear or sense anyone else, he kept seeing flashes of green out of the corner of his eye.

"Is something the matter?" Muld asked. "You seem jumpy."

"I get the feeling that I'm being followed. I keep seeing green lights wherever I go."

"Green lights? Are your eyes playing tricks on you?"

"I don't know. They almost look like eyes. Have you seen anything?"

"No, but I'll keep an eye out. So, your leg looks a lot better. Sorry about that, by the way, I tried to soften the landing but your leg still broke."

"The Savior healed it."

"Oh really? That's amazing. Do you think he could do something about that missing tooth to?"

"Probably, but he can only use so much power. He said something about killing everyone if he overdoes it."

He saw the green lights again, this time from a rooftop to their left. He elbowed Muld in the ribs and whispered "rooftop to the left, do you see it?"

Muld turned and looked. "See what? There's nothing there."

Eck looked. The lights were gone. "They're always gone the second time I look. Maybe we shouldn't go."

"I'm sure it's fine. Whatever it is won't be able to get past the guards. So, are you getting back in the ring anytime soon?"

"I don't know. Master's been training me to use his power."

"Wow. Lucky bastard."

"I'm nowhere near as powerful as he is. I can't even do anything with it." He caught sight of the lights, just barely within sight in an alley to his right. He grabbed Muld by the shoulders and turned him around.

"Whoa! What was that about?"

"Did you see it?"

"No Eck, I didn't see anything. Where was it?"

"In the alley. Are you sure you didn't see anything?"

"Well, maybe I did? I didn't get a clear look, but I saw something green. Looked like a piece of glass or something, but it's gone now. I don't know. You should probably get some sleep after you speak with the Mistress."

Eck kept looking for the lights, but he didn't see them again. He looked behind him as they descended into the hideout, but didn't see anything following him.

"Well," Muld said once they were downstairs, "One of us has to visit the girls to, you know, keep up appearances." He gave Eck a nudge and a wink. "See ya around, and don't go crazy on me, ya hear?"

"I'm not crazy," Eck muttered under his breath. He strode towards Lorende's room and knocked on the door.

"It's Eck, Mistress. I need to speak to you about Arkus, and I need your advice."

"Come in," she called. The door opened, and he took a seat. Lorende was shuffling through a large pile of documents, scrawling signatures, writing notes, and balancing the funding.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Arkus is engaged. To one of them."

"I noticed. He had me provide the paperwork for it. What about it troubles you?"

"There's something… off, I can sense it. I'm not crazy. I'm worried that she'll hurt the Savior, or warn them."

"There's no need for concern Eck. He knows what he's doing."

"But why? It doesn't make any sense?"

"There's a saying. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer."

"They're sleeping in the same bed! How can you be sure nothing bad will happen?"

"Because he was human once. Just like you. The Father killed the one he loved, and he won't stop until he has his revenge. That's all you need to know."

"But—"

"I don't approve of his methods either, but he knows best. You should get some rest, Eck, it's late."

Eck mumbled good-night as he left. He looked around once he was outside, but he saw no sign of the lights. He walked all the way to the apartment building in complete silence. When he approached the door, he saw the lights staring at him from the door's reflection. He turned. They were on top of the building across the street. He sprinted into an alley and climbed up the gutter. The lights were still there, watching.

"Why are you following me?"

The lights turned away, and he heard footsteps. He could see a black silhouette leap across the alley onto another rooftop. The lights turned back towards him, beckoning him. Eck ran forward and leapt onto the other building. Once he steadied himself, the lights turned and ran towards another rooftop. Eck pursued the figure further and further across the rooftops, near the fringe of the city. Then the figure reached a building five feet higher than his own. Eck stopped at the gap between them. He saw a stone windowsill just below the edge of the building and jumped for it. His fingers caught the rooftop, and one foot planted itself on the windowsill. He tried pushing himself up, but he was stuck. He was too far to push himself back to the previous building, and the alleyway pavement was thirty feet below him. His fingers started to slip.

As his grip wavered, an arm darted out of the night and grabbed him. He was hauled onto the rooftop, shaking from the strain of clinging to the building.

The figure stood over him. The two green lights, spaced apart like eyes, turned off with a click. The figure's mask slid upward, revealing a human face. His eyes were milky white, and he didn't have any hair, eyebrows, or even eyelashes. His lips were thin and pallid, and his nose clung to his face.

"Why were you following me?" Eck asked between gasps for breath.

The man's voice was monotone, even and pale of emotions. "Because you are a person of interest."

"Of interest? What does that mean?"

"I am a field agent for the Sinex Order. We've been watching for centuries, waiting for the moment to reclaim the world for humanity. My orders are to make you one of us."

"How can I trust you?"

"How can you trust them? The truth has been hidden from you."

"What truth?"

"She is not interested in protecting humanity. If she was, she would have told you the truth."

"What truth? And how do you know about her?"

"I followed you inside. I heard everything. And I know she deceived you. She told you the zoroark killed his lover, but she didn't tell you his lover was a pokemon."

"Wait, what? What does that have to do with anything? I don't understand."

"He has been a pokemon for almost six hundred years. Do you think he remembers what it is like to be human? He was born to be humanity's savior, gifted with the powers to overthrow the zoroark, but the pokemon made him their slave."

"What proof do you have?"

"She said so herself. She made him. She made him to turn on humanity. But we can fix him, make him human again. And when that time comes, we will need your help, for humanity's sake. Here, take this."

The man held out a gold emblem in his hands. It was in the shape of a magnificent bird with fire-tipped wings, and it held a blue crystal in its talons. Eck could feel power seeping from the stone.

"We are the rebirth of humanity, Eck, and we need your help."

"How do I know you aren't lying?"

"Ask him yourself. I must go, but I will contact you again."

"Wait, how?" Eck asked. But he was gone, vanished into the shadows like liquid darkness. Eck looked around the buildings, then to the emblem in his hands. He tucked it into his pocket and returned to his master.

Chapter 16: Field Agent 46

He darted into the forest outside Palsitore and turned on his communicator.

"Mission complete," he said.

"Excellent job. The intel you've collected is very valuable. Now we can proceed onto the second phase."

"Yes sir. I will return at once."

The field agent held up his wrist and hit a button. He was enveloped in red light and beamed across the world.

Chapter 17: Eck

He woke up as Alicia left. He saw them kiss before Arkus closed the door. The emblem sat in his pocket, radiating cold light through his veins. He wondered if Arkus knew.

"You have a match today," he said.

"In the Arena? You think I'm ready?"

"I need to make sure. It won't be long before my plan starts. You'll be fighting the same one as before. I also had them add a special condition. To win, you can only throw one punch. That's it. Watch his movements, wait for his aura to gather in one spot, and strike. Understood?"

"Yes master."

"Good. Do whatever you wish in the meantime. I'll be at a business meeting."

Eck saw the sniper rifle tucked beneath his cloak as Arkus walked out. He waited ten minutes before going to the Trimrose. The front door was locked, but Sara let him in when he knocked.

"I don't have any beer ready yet, but I do have some water."

"No thanks, just checking for messages."

"I heard about the fight tonight. Muld wants to talk to you about it, actually. He said to meet him at the training facility. Are you sure you don't want anything?"

Eck left after having a glass of water. He stopped for a light breakfast, then he entered the facility. Muld was at the benches, pressing two hundred pounds. Eck walked over and held his hand under the bar.

"Careful. Wouldn't want you dropping out of the fight before I smash that ugly mug of yours."

Muld lifted with a strained grunt, placed the weights on the rack behind him, and said, "You wish. I'm going to put you back in the hospital when I'm through with you. Now get lost, I have more training to do." Then he glanced to the sides and whispered, "Showers in thirty."

Eck went to the rowing machine and heaved until sweat ran down his face in salty streams. He wiped his brow, ran a hand through his hair, and went to the showers. The undershirt and shorts went into the tub, while his pants and shirt were folded on a rack. He took the emblem into the shower. He had the water warmed up and the soap slick with suds when Muld walked into the next shower.

"I heard about tonight's fight," Muld said as he turned the water on. "Just give me one big haymaker and I'll go down, no worries. I still owe you for breaking your leg, you know."

"No. This isn't about the win. It's a test."

"A test? Oh, I get it. I won't hold anything back then."

"I won't either."

Eck reached for the soap, but instead, his fingers closed around the emblem. A surge of power raced through his body, and a spasm of pain between his eyes blinded him.

"Hey, are you alright?"

"Fine," he gasped. "I, uh, turned the water up too high."

"Be careful not to pull anything. Heck, you should just take it easy for today."

Someone walked in. Eck turned the water off, gathered his clothes, and left. He wandered around the city until he was hungry and grabbed a burger. Then he returned to the apartment and waited for Arkus to return. He sat in the hammock and examined the emblem. He tried to focus its power, but it resisted his will.

The door opened, and Eck crammed the emblem into his pants pocket. He left the bedroom and saw his master set the rifle in the closet.

"Are you ready to go?"

"Yes master." Eck remembered last night's conversation and said, "Actually master, I heard that you had loved someone."

Arkus shook his head and asked, "I suppose Lorende told you that?"

"Yes master, but she didn't tell me much. I would like to know more, if you don't mind."

Arkus stared off into space. A minute passed before he replied, "Win the fight, and I will answer your questions."

The arena had half the usual number of spectators. Eck wondered why until he saw his was the only fight of the evening.

"How come all these people came to watch?"

"Free admission," Arkus answered. "I funded the fight."

The referee waddled up to them and said, "The fight's in five minutes."

Eck undressed and put on a blue belt. He felt the emblem in the pants pocket and, on a whim, tucked it into his belt.

Muld was waiting in the other corner. Once Eck slipped under the ropes, the referee hit a bell and the fight began. Muld came in swinging, and he clipped Eck on the shoulder with a punch. Eck staggered back, keeping his distance and watching for an opening, but Muld moved deliberately, keeping his hands high and his stance balanced. Eck swooped forward with a feint, but Muld countered with a right cross, forcing Eck to duck to his knees. A kick sent Eck tumbling back on the mat.

"Is that all you got?" Muld asked. "Pathetic. I guess you went soft after I broke your leg."

Eck got on his feet, and he was sent staggering into the ropes by a roundhouse that tickled the hairs on his nose. He used his momentum to bounce off the ropes and duck under a punch, putting him at the center of the ring. He threw a punch and stopped just short of Muld's back. Muld whirled and clocked Eck on the cheek.

"What's the matter, little man, too afraid to use your one punch? This is way too easy."

Muld threw a barrage of punches and kicks. Eck dodged what he could, deflected most of what connected, and took a few punches. His breathing grew ragged as he ducked and sidestepped around the ring, and he could feel his fresh bruises throb every time he moved. Eck knew he needed to focus, but he couldn't close his eyes. No matter what he told himself, he couldn't ignore the voice in his head telling him he can't see without his eyes.

A punch connected with his cheek. His eyes closed as his head snapped to the side, and his second sight fell into focus. He forced his eyes shut as he pushed himself up the rope.

"Don't want to see yourself lose? Don't worry, I'll make you feel every second of it." Muld threw a wild haymaker, and Eck easily ducked beneath it, moving behind Muld and waiting for him to turn. He could feel himself now, every shift of his feet, every twitch of his muscles, every lean in his stance. He could see himself too, how his self flowed with each movement. He was the air Muld punched, nonresistant, unobtainable, everywhere at once. He watched and waited as Muld's movements grew erratic and imbalanced. The energy in him rushed about in confused eddies, forming swirling pools where his stance weakened.

Muld threw his arm back for a powerful punch, and Eck saw all the aura within him rushing towards the center of his neck. Power surged through him, filling his nerves with icy fire. His brain burned, and flashes of blue sparked across his sight, but he remained fixed on Muld's throat. Eck flowed forward, Muld's fist brushing against his cheek as Eck pushed all his power into his fist and connected. Aura flashed across Muld's body in a resplendent explosion of color. What his eyes saw, however, horrified him.

Muld was rolling on the ground, coughing up blood. His breathing came in croaks and gurgles. Arkus ran past him and propped up Muld's head. Eck sensed power flowing out of Arkus for a second before he backed away.

"His neck isn't broken," he told Muld's master. "He should make it with treatment. I can foot the bill."

"You better," the ludicolo told him. "You didn't warn me he was that good."

Arkus pulled out a checkbook and wrote him a check. The ludicolo stared at it with raised eyebrows.

"Holy shit, you weren't kidding. Much obliged."

They left after Muld was carried away. A trail of blood marked his departure.

"I didn't expect it to nearly kill him," Eck said in the locker room.

"I didn't either. In fact, that was more aura than you should've been able to handle. Has anything strange happened to you lately?"

Eck thought of the emblem on his belt and said, "No master."

"Are you sure? Have you had any headaches recently, or suddenly went blind?"

"No master. By the way, didn't you say you'd tell me about your partner?"

Eck looked away. "We never got to make it official. Alright then, ask."

"What was her name?"

"Verra."

A long silence passed between them. Then Eck asked, "What was she like?"

"Fiery, stubborn, vindictive, wonderful."

"How did you meet?"

"She tried to kill me. Many times."

"What did she look like?"

"She was beautiful."

"Um, I mean, you were a human once, right?"

"Yes."

"And she was human too, wasn't she?"

Arkus made another long pause. Then he took a deep breath and said, "No, she was a grovyle. Any more questions?"

Eck asked a few more, but he had the answer he needed. Lorende lied, but he had someone new, and he had his own power. He vowed to set his master free.


	9. Chapters 18-19

Chapter 18: Dussell de Baltham

The invitation was in his hands. Dussell didn't want it in his office, but he knew he would forget without it. The family meeting was tomorrow, and though he wanted to feign illness, he knew he had to go.

When he got to the office, however, his door was closed. He wiggled the handle, but it didn't budge.

"Heste's in there," Fale told him. The wigglytuff handed him a plate of toast and apple slices. Dussell bit into the toast and said, "Get me the spare key."

"She took it, sir. I already tried getting her out, but she won't budge."

Dussell walked up to the door, knocked, and said, "Get out of there Heste. I have work to do."

"Don't even think about it. You're in no condition to work. Hell, you shouldn't even be out of bed. You haven't slept in days!"

"I'm fine, damn it! Now open the door!"

"Did you have breakfast this morning?"

"I had coffee." Dussell glanced down at the plate and said, "Some toast too."

"Did you even notice I was gone?"

"Open this goddamn door right now or I'll break it down!"

The office went completely silent. Every officer stared at the chief of police. One officer didn't even twitch when a stack of papers slid into her lap and onto the floor.

A long, silent moment passed. Dussell formed a thin blade around his fingers and glanced at the lock. Then the door clicked open. Heste flung the door open and stood in front of him.

"You want in so badly? Fine. Get past me, and I'll leave you alone."

Dussell flung a glob of darkness at Heste, but she ducked underneath it, rushed forward, and punched him in the gut. Dussell felt the wind rush out of him, and he collapsed onto the floor. He tried to stand up, but his legs shook and he fell into Heste's arms.

"Fale, could you drive us home?"

"Uh, sure. I'll be right back."

Dussell opened his mouth to protest, but he couldn't make the words come out. The last thing he saw before he passed out was a tear streaming down Heste's cheek.

Dussell's nose woke him up. He could smell a hearty pot of pidgey soup on the stove, along with a loaf of bread fresh from the oven. He tried to sit up, but he couldn't muster the energy. Heste turned and saw him move the blankets.

"Just sit right there, dinner's almost done."

"Dinner? How long was I out?"

"An afternoon. It's nearly six. I left Fale in charge, so you know."

Heste stirred the pot and tasted the broth, and then she poured two bowls. She bunched up Dussell's blanket and nested the bowl onto his lap. Warmth seeped into his fur, massaging his aching muscles and making his eyelids droop.

"Eat up before you fall asleep again," Heste said. She tore the bread and handed him a half. He shimmied up the couch and dunked the bread. He finished the bread before eating the soup. He noticed cheri berries floating around in the broth, along with diced potatoes, and carrots."

"How was it?" Heste asked.

"Very good. Didn't realize how hungry I was."

"I'm glad you liked it." Heste looked down and rubbed the back of her neck. "Listen, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have hit you that hard, nor should I have acted like that in front of your officers."

"I'm the one that should apologize. You were only trying to help me, and I tried to hit you."

"I know how much your work matters to you, and I shouldn't have been that rough on you."

"You had every right. It's unfair of me to make you worry so much."

"So, are you going to take it easy from now on?"

"I'll try. I really did it this time, didn't I?"

Heste chuckled and said, "You sure did. You even had your coat on backwards one morning. You aren't going to catch any criminals in a hospital bed, you know."

"Yes, I know. I'll take it easy for a few days."

"Good. Let me know if you need anything."

"Wait a moment. Any luck?"

Heste touched her belly and said, "No, nothing."

"We'll have to keep trying."

"We've been trying for almost two years, Dussell. What if there's something wrong with me?"

"I'm sure you're fine. It takes a little luck, you know, and I've been too busy to make it happen."

"Are you sure? Maybe we should see a doctor."

"I'm sure. Just give it a few more tries."

"Okay then. Get some rest."

Once Heste was gone, Dussell whispered to himself. "Next time. I'll do it next time."

Chapter 19: Alicia de Renera

Alicia stared at the ceiling above her bed, wondering where she was. Then she remembered. She had stayed the night at Arkus' new apartment, so they could go to the reunion together. The bedroom was sparsely furnished, with only a clock, nightstand, bed, and a lamp, making the spacious room feel cold and empty. Alicia huddled the blankets around her as she put on the dress. The material was too thin to give her any sense of warmth, so she took the blankets out into the kitchen. Two bowls of oatmeal, each dotted with oran berries, sat on the counter. Alicia took one and started eating, discarding the blankets as the oatmeal warmed her up.

Arkus walked out of the bedroom, wearing his charcoal gray suit. He sat across from her and began eating.

"So, we're really doing it?" Alicia asked.

"Yep. Are you nervous?"

"I suppose. I don't know how mother's going to react."

Arkus placed his hand on top of hers. "Don't worry. She can't touch you now unless you let her."

"Um, did you finish the book I gave you?"

"Yes, you fulfilled your end of the bargain nicely. It's a shame there wasn't anything before the Father, but what I learned was fascinating. To think that humans had their own civilization at one time! Extraordinary! Oh, I left the book on my dresser. Could you return it when you get the chance?"

"Sure." Alicia glanced at the clock. "We should get going." She scooped the last of the oatmeal into her mouth, dumped the bowl into the sink, and fastened the engagement band to her arm.

The reunion took place beneath City Hall. In the back of the building was a set of iron doors. A stone staircase descended into a cavernous room below the city. Hundreds of electric lamps perforated the ceiling. One half of the cave held dozens of tables, each cluttered with platters of food, barrels of beverages, and buckets of utensils. The other side had thousands of long stone benches, facing a podium on the far end of the room. Dividing the two sides was an empty space, where thousands of zoroark and their mates mingled amongst themselves. Across the room was a separate door, behind which the older zoroark looked after the younglings.

Alicia froze at the bottom of the stairs, overwhelmed by the swirling masses and cacophonous clutter of conversations, but Arkus' arm swept her into the crowd. Alicia expected their presence to create a hush, but she only caught a handful of whispers about her dress.

Arkus spoke for them both, and Alicia blankly answered any questions directed at her. Arkus shook hands and handed out business cards. She jumped when someone tapped her on the shoulder.

"Oh, pardon me," the zoroark said. "Could I see your engagement band for a moment?"

Alicia held up her arm, and the woman ran her finger over the metalwork. "I thought so. Definitely a Kelsen, but how did you get a hold of this?"

"Business tactics," Arkus told her.

"Business tactics?" another zoroark asked with a smile."Better not be anything illegal."

A typhlosion smacked him on the shoulder and said, "Seriously Dussell? You promised to take a break."

Dussell grabbed his shoulder and said, "I was just joking, Heste." He held out his hand and said, "I'm Chief of Police Dussell de Baltham, and that's my wife Heste."

Arkus took his hand and shook it. "Arkus, business mediation, and my fiancée Alicia."

Alicia saw her mother walking towards them. She grabbed Arkus' arm and said, "Can I speak with you for a moment?" She dragged him off to the tables before he could reply.

"What is it?" Arkus took a cracker smeared with cream cheese, heaped berry paste onto it, and crammed it into his mouth.

"It's my mother. What are you going to tell her?"

"Nothing. You're the one that has to do it."

"Me? But I can't handle her!"

"You know her better than I. Find her weakness and exploit it."

 _Her weakness?_ Alicia thought. _She despises weakness. There's no way I could win against her._

Arkus grabbed her arm and pulled her towards her mother. She dragged her heels at first, but once she made eye contact with her mother, she stopped. Her mind went blank as she tried to think of something to say.

"Well well, if it isn't my pathetic weakling of a daughter. How dare you shackle yourself to the first man that pays attention to you? How long did you even wait to get engaged, a week?"

 _Oh no, I have to say something, anything, but what?_

"I always wondered why dad never left you."

"What the hell are you blathering about?"

The crowd around her fell silent and stared. She could feel sweat forming on the back of her neck, and her throat felt bone dry.

 _Why did I say that? Now what do I do? Oh, I can't do this. I should just apologize while I can and leave._

Arkus' hand tightened around her own, and she felt a tiny pulse of warmth crawl up her arm. She took a deep breath and said, "Dad was always miserable. You made him do all the work around the house and insulted all his efforts. There were times I saw him crying alone in the living room. I asked him one day why he didn't just leave and he wouldn't give me an answer."

Her mother clenched her hands and scowled. "Because he was too weak, that's why. Weak people like him don't deserve any kindness."

 _Wait, is she nervous? She's shaking! She is nervous! But where do I go from here? There's got to be something._

"He wasn't too weak. He was far stronger than you give him credit for. In fact, I would say he was stronger than you."

"Absurd! How dare you make a mockery of me, and here of all places? Apologize for your insolence right now!"

Alicia felt a smile spread across her face. She stood taller and stared her mother in the eyes. She saw her mother's eyes dilate in panic and knew she had won.

"Father stayed with you all those years because he pitied you, mother. It's ironic. You, mother, always preaching about how only the strong deserve any happiness, lack the strength to make people feel better about themselves. You keep your dominance over others by insulting them and making them feel small. Father knew how unhappy you would be if he left you, so he stayed. He suffered all those years of abuse so you wouldn't notice your own pettiness, and that took true strength."

Her mother huffed and icily said, "What would you know? You're a spoiled weak brat running to the lap of a man, like an obedient little dog. I am through with you daughter of mine."

As her mother turned to leave, her dress got caught under her heel and she tripped, tearing a large strip off her dress. With mumbled curses, her mother collected her dress and stormed off.

Most people around her politely turned away, but Heste walked up to her and put a hand on her shoulder.

"It was about time you got the better of that miserable old hag," she said. "You look absolutely stunning, by the way."

"Um, thanks." Alicia looked for Arkus, but he wasn't nearby. She eventually spotted him leaning against a corner, staring down at the floor. She wound her way through the crowd and walked up to him. A tear streamed down the edge of his chin.

"Are — are you alright?"

Arkus wiped the tear away. "Yes, sorry, I'm fine. I needed a minute."

"Is it something I said?"

"No, it's not you. I just, I don't know what came over me."

"Here, have some water." Alicia grabbed a cup from the nearest table, filled it, and handed it to him. He drained the cup in one swallow, water streaming from the sides of his mouth. A large wet stain darkened the suit around his neck.

"Thanks. Looks like everyone's sitting down."

Alicia turned around and saw everyone migrating to the benches. She and Arkus ran after them, slipping into seats near the back. A zoroark from the front row came up to the podium and spoke into the microphone.

"Brothers and sisters! We were summoned today because our Father has an urgent message for all of us. Remain silent so all can hear his words."

The Father entered in a wheelchair. The left half of his face was worn away to the bone, and a gaping hole in his chest revealed his scarred heart. The scars oozed tiny droplets of blood with each beat of his heart. Plastic tubes stuck out from his right arm and chest, dripping a rainbow of liquids into his bloodstream. A system of pulleys suspended around his chair tugged the bones of his left arm into motion, pulled by tiny plastic strings.

The microphone was brought down to his mouth. His breath heaved for a moment, and then he spoke.

"Keith is back."

For a few seconds, the room was suspended in shocked silence. Then it fell into an uproar. Zoroark stood and shouted at each other, while their spouses remained seated, glancing nervously at the chaos swirling around them.

A zoroark took the microphone and shouted "Silence! Silence! Our Father has more to say!"

His voice boomed from the speakers with enough force to silence the room. Everyone sat back down, and the microphone was returned to the Father. They waited, breaths held, hands clenched, brows furrowed, for their Father to speak.

"Keith is here," he said. He continued each sentence after a long pause. "I can feel my wounds burn. But here is no need to panic. He has yet to kill any of us. His power is not what it was. He will show himself, and he does, you will strike as a family."

The crowd remained silent as the Father lifted his bony hand. "But that's enough about the past. We have a future to look forward to. In particular, we have a new family member to welcome."

The Father paused and started coughing. Droplets of blood smeared his lips, and his breathing came in ragged gasps. His attendant rushed him to the other room, and a zoroark took his place.

"Arkus and Alicia de Renera, come forward."

Alicia glanced at Arkus. His tears were gone. He stood and held out his hand, which Alicia took. She made herself look forward as they approached the podium.

"Due to his failing health, our Father has decided to hold your marriage ceremony in three days. However, he does not want you to feel rushed into this and will allow you to be wedded at a later date if you wish."

"I have no objections," Arkus said. "I am certain he knows best."

Alicia whispered into his ear. "Are you sure about this?"

"I'm sure. We shouldn't keep him waiting."

Alicia leaned towards the microphone and said, "I agree as well."

"Very well then, you may return to your seats. Now, we have a few additional topics to discuss, including the allocation of corporate assets freed by the assassinations."

Hours of discussion, debate, and conversations later, they returned to Arkus' apartment. He went straight to his room and locked the door. Alicia had her hand on the doorknob, but she decided to check on Arkus. She pressed her cheek against the doorframe and peered through the crack in the doorway. He had thrown off most of his clothes and sat on the bed in his underwear. He wiped a finger across his face and glanced towards the door. Alicia backed away and went to her room.

She pulled back the covers and fell into the bed. She thought about taking off the dress, but she felt too heavy to move. She stared up at the ceiling and counted the specks sticking out. Her eyes wouldn't close. Her insides felt too clammy.

A knock came from her door. The knob slowly turned, and the door creaked open. Arkus nudged the covers aside and slid into the bed.

"I need to tell you something," he said.

Alicia wriggled herself sideways and asked, "Is it about today?"

"Yeah." Arkus pulled the sheets up towards his chin. "Well, there was someone else. Not that we were married, but we were in a relationship. It didn't end well."

"She died?"

"Yeah. I don't know why it's been bothering me today. Probably because you reminded me of her."

Alicia rubbed her chilled hands together and asked, "What was she like?"

"She was really stubborn; to the point it nearly killed her. Also hot-tempered and arrogant. But past that, she was very kind."

"That doesn't sound like me at all."

"You were like her the moment you stood up for yourself. It made me realize I hadn't thought of her for a long time. I don't know what I should do about it."

Alicia inched closer to Arkus and spoke softly. "When my dad died, I felt so lonely. That's why I started reading books. I didn't have anyone to talk to, so I used to pretend to talk to the people in the pages. Mother didn't like that." She took a deep breath and said, "I guess the only way to make it better is to have someone to talk to."

"Someone to talk to…" He leaned towards her, and his arm crept behind her neck. She felt his fingers untie her dress as their lips touched. Then he stopped.

"No, I'm sorry, that was wrong of me."

He pulled away, but she pulled him back. She wrapped her arms around him and ran her thin, delicate fingers along his spine. He shivered as she caressed every hill and valley on his back. Once her fingers reached his undergarments, she pulled them back and tickled the edges of his hind leaves.

His hands crawled their way down her shoulders. Goosebumps rose on her skin from each touch of his scaly fingers. Inch by inch, he lifted her shimmering blue dress until she slid out of it.

Arkus stroked the fur on her cheek and asked, "Are you sure about this?" His breathing was heavy, and his eyes flitted around the room.

The blaziken's words echoed in her head, so faintly she couldn't hear them over the beating of her own heart. "Yes, I'm sure."

Moments later, it was done. They held each other for a moment, taking in their collective warmth before splitting apart. Though they had never been closer, the distance between them couldn't be measured in miles.


	10. Chapters 20-22

Chapter 20: Eck

Arkus had told him to spend the day training, so he work in the gym until he couldn't feel his fingers. By the time he ate and returned home it was already well past dark. He walked inside and saw Arkus in his underwear, washing blue hairs down the kitchen sink.

"Um, what are you doing?" Eck asked.

Arkus turned the water off. "Tidying up. Come on, it's time to start the mission?"

"What mission?"

Arkus tossed him a white robe. "Put that on. It's time I told you why I trained you."

As they walked down the street, Arkus told Eck that he will be a decoy, keeping the zoroark distracted while he kills the Father during the wedding ceremony.

"You'll probably die. Are you alright with that?"

"Yes, but how are they going to think I'm you?"

Arkus turned towards him, his face transformed to match Eck's. He gave Eck a wide grin, showing the gap in his teeth.

"I already fed the police a description of your appearance, during one of my jobs. All that's left is to get their attention. Duck into an alley, and once the shot's fired, go to Lorende and tell her the plan. You can't come back to the apartment, understood?"

They turned onto a major avenue. Even this late at night, a handful of people walked the streets. Two hundred feet down the sidewalk, a zoroark walked towards them. She wore a black dress and carried a leather purse. Eck turned into the nearest alley and watched from around the corner of an old brick building. Arkus kept walking, his white cloak swaying in the gentle autumn breeze. They met under a streetlight, in front of a confectionary. When Arkus stopped, the zoroark stopped also.

The zoroark crossed her arms and said, "Is there something I can help you with?"

"Yes," he said, throwing his cloak aside and drawing his sniper. "You can send my regards to Ath."

Even from that distance, Eck could see the zoroark's eyes widen. She raised her hands and conjured a nebulous shield. A gunshot echoed across the street, and the barrier was smashed to pieces. The zoroark clutched her shoulder and crumpled onto the ground. As she crawled towards the street lamp, she smeared a trail of blood on the pavement.

One pokemon stared in shock. The rest ran. Eck looked to make sure no one was watching him before he ran down the alley. As he jogged back to the apartment, he saw two green lights staring at him from the rooftop of a short, squat brick building. He ran over and climbed the gutter. An agent was waiting for him.

"Ah, good to see you again."

"I am Agent Eighty-One," the woman answered. You spoke with Forty-Six last time." She removed her mask, revealing the same blank, hairless features of the other agent. "I was sent to update the situation, give you your new orders, and deliver the gauntlet to you."

"Arkus has his own plan."

"We are aware. I already told HQ of the situation."

"So, what do you want me to do?"

"We need you to capture him. The gauntlet should be enough for that. Once we capture him, we can make him human again."

The agent held out a shiny black box. Eck took it and opened the lid. Inside was a glove of metal bars, with silver tubes coiled around each finger. A glowing blue crystal protruded from the back of the gauntlet's hand. Eck put on the glove. He went blind for a second and nearly threw up from the tremendous power coursing through his body. When he could see again, he was lying on the ground, staring up at the agent's face.

"We had expected side effects, but we didn't predict such a harsh reaction."

"It's fine," Eck said, straining to sit up. "I can handle it. So, how are you going to make Arkus human again?"

"He has a tremendous power stored in him, too much for a human to handle. If we drain his power, we can reverse the process that made him a pokemon. And with that drained power, we can give all of humanity a small piece of his gift. The pokemon would be no match for us."

"You really mean to eliminate all the pokemon?"

"Yes."

Eck looked down at the glove on his hand. "I can't agree to that. Not yet. Arkus is a pokemon, true, but he still has the same goal as us." Eck raised the gauntlet, conjuring a blue aura around his fist as he declared, "But if he strays from that path, I will see to it that his true purpose is carried out. Humanity will be restored to its rightful place."

"In any event, you should start spreading the word. For humanity's future, Lorende must not be allowed to interfere."

Eck ran a hand through his hair. "I don't know, Lorende has done so much for us."

"Lorende is a pokemon, is she not? Look what has happened already with pokemon in charge. You must persuade the others to follow your orders, not hers."

"My orders?" Eck shook his head and said, "No, I can't, I'm not able to."

"You must. Those powers chose you for a reason, Eck." The agent stepped closer and whispered into his ear. "It's time for humans to lead themselves, and you're the only one that can do it."

The only one that can do it: those words rang through head like the peal of a funeral bell, and he felt his soul vibrate with it. He could feel the power of those words in the ache between his eyes. "Alright, I'll do it, but it would be easier if you went with me."

The agent placed her hand to her ear and listened for a moment before saying, "Yes, I can do that. Let's go."

The guards at Lorie's didn't see the agent. Once he was below ground, Eck looked for Tas. He found him in the dining room, grabbing a late night snack from the pantry.

"Eck? What are you doing here?" Tas asked, tearing a bite out of a loaf of bread. "And who is that?"

Eck looked behind him. The agent was once again visible.

"Gather everyone. We need to talk somewhere private. And don't tell Lorende."

An hour later, every human in the underground shelter was gathered in the dining hall. Once the door was barricaded, Eck stood on a table and spoke.

"It's time you learned the truth. All of it. Lorende has lied to us — she is a pokemon, and she serves only her own interest."

"Lies!" one man shouted. "I don't know what that thing standing behind you has told you, but you can't trust it!"

The agent removed her mask. The crowd gasped when they saw her human face.

"Yes, she is one of us. And Lorende told me herself that she was a pokemon. One touch is all it would take to prove me right. Moreover, she also admitted that Arkus was, at one time, a human, and she turned him into a pokemon. I believe that he remains human on the inside." Eck stomped on the table, and the thud echoed across the hall. "But if his mind was warped along with his body, it falls upon us to carry out his true purpose. We must ensure the salvation of humanity and restore ourselves to our former glory! Now, who's with me?"

The dining hall was silent. No one moved. Then Tas stood and stepped forward.

"Are you sure this is right? Lorende may be a pokemon, but still, without her, we would have nothing."

"That's not true. We have always had each other." Eck stepped down and walked amongst the crowd, touching each one on the shoulder with the gauntlet. A blue spark leapt from him to each person he touched. "We are one in the same, powerless, small, but undaunted! Together, we can achieve anything! Those pokemon, they're nothing more than animals. They don't have a greater sense of purpose. They lack the humanity to understand each other. Why else would they all be so different from each other? We all have the same skin, same eyes, same hair. Our hearts beat as one!" He rushed onto the nearest table and slammed his feet down, cracking the table. "But them? They're as different from each other as the pidgey to the tauros, or the ekans to the ratatta. Without the Father keeping the order, they wouldn't have a society. Do you think such rabble deserves to rule over us, to treat us like vermin while they live in luxury?"

The dining hall rang with a thunderous cry of "No!"

"Do you think they can stand against us?"

"No!"

"Do you even think they're worthy of living, of breathing the same air as we do, of treading the same ground we tread, of drinking the same water and eating the same food?"

"No!"

"Are you all with me?"

"Yes!"

"Will you see the restoration of humanity to its former glory!"

"Yes!"

"Then you know what we must do! In three days, the Father shall be dead, and the pokemon's fragile society will crumble. On that day, we will rise and claim the world taken from us! We will slaughter each and every single pokemon until the streets run red with their tainted blood!"

The dining hall erupted in an enormous cheer, and the humans pounded the tables with their fists. Each one had a manic look in their eyes, their hearts beating in frenzied tandem with the beat of their fists. Once the cheering stopped, they quietly slipped out of the dining hall with fiendish grins on their faces until Eck and the agent were the last two.

"How was that?" Eck asked.

"Impressive. The plan will move along nicely."

Eck pressed a finger into her chest and said, "Remember that I'm the one in charge here. We don't take Arkus unless I say so."

The agent said nothing. Eck turned away, rubbing his aching head as he sought out a bed. He collapsed in his bedroom, his left arm and head at the foot of the bed. The gauntlet was still strapped to his hand, bathing the room in a harsh blue glow.

Chapter 21: Agent 81

"Your report," the voice from her handset demanded.

"The humans are ready. However, the symptoms are setting in much faster than predicted. He cannot be controlled."

"No matter. We'll deal with that when the time comes. Is the next phase ready?"

"Yes sir."

"Good. I'll have a team assemble the Delta Project in the morning. Make sure all the humans are plugged in when we use it. No loose ends, understood?"

"Yes sir."

Chapter 22: Dussell de Baltham

The phone rang just after midnight. Dussell sprang out of bed and answered it.

"Chief!" Fale shouted. "It's Keith, he shot a zoroark!"

"Do you have autopsy results?"

"No, she's alive! They just got her to a hospital, she's still conscious. I'll be there in three minutes!"

The line clicked, and Dussell slammed the phone. As he scrambled to put on his jacket and shoes, Heste turned on a light and lumbered into the kitchen.

"Ugh, what is it now?" Heste asked, rubbing at her eyes.

"Keith shot someone. I'm going to the hospital."

"Alright. I'll go back to bed."

Fale came to a screeching stop in front of his house. Dussell dashed into the front seat, and they sped off towards the hospital. Once they arrived, Dussell raced past the row of glass doors. He flashed his badge at the receptionist and demanded to see the victim. He was taken to her room, and the doctor told him to make it quick.

Though her wound was tightly bandaged, it still bled. Her blood soaked the sheets and dripped onto the floor. Four blood bags dripped into her arms and chest, and a breathing tube snaked down her throat. Though her eyes were hazy, she saw Dussell enter the room.

"I saw him," she hissed past the breathing tube.

Dussell took a notebook and pen from his pocket. "Tell me what he looked like, Kate."

"Human, black hair, scars, broken nose, white robe, large gun."

As he scribbled the description, he realized he had heard it before. He flipped back through his notebook and found the description Alex Bayson had given him.

"Fale, which unit has the ballistics records?"

"Six got this one," the wigglytuff answered.

"Have them sent to sixteen, and have it run a comparison with the Jennings case."

Fale tapped his foot against the doorframe and fidgeted with the tuff of hair on his forehead. Then he snapped his fingers and said, "The eye-witness! It's a perfect match!"

"Let's not jump to conclusions. I need more evidence before I can get anything out of the Board."

"Right sir. We should return to the station."

Fale left the room. Dussell stayed long enough to take Kate's frail hand and say, "Thank you. You have no idea how much that helped us."

"He said to send Ath his regards," she whispered.

"Get some rest. By the time you're better, this will all be over."

The station was buzzing with officers. Some went on patrols, but the rest milled about the office, spinning their chairs and checking their guns. They snapped to attention when Dussell walked in and fired a volley of reports at him.

Fale ran off to the repository and Dussell went into his office with a pile of reports. He sorted through the Jennings file and laid out every scrap of paper he had on Keith. He took out a box of pins and a spool of red thread. He stuck pins threaded together between each point of similarity and labeled them. Within ten minutes, he had an intricate web of thread winding between the papers, but the report on the incident at Nazrick remained untouched. He placed a pin on the CEO's name, but he found nothing to connect it with.

"I'm missing something," he muttered.

Fale knocked on his door and walked in. Sixteen followed behind him.

 _Calculations confirmed. The bullets were fired by the same gun, with nearly identical muzzle velocity._

"I got the exact numbers on this report," Fale said, handing him a folder. He leaned forward to examine the interlace of thread, and he touched one of the needles."

"You shouldn't do that to your desk, sir."

"Never mind that. I need to make a phone call."

"Right. Good luck sir."

Fale locked the door and closed it behind him. Dussell picked up the phone and made a call.

"I hope this is important," his father said once the line was connected.

"It is. I have a lead on Keith. He's the assassin the Board's been hiring recently. I have confirmation from eyewitnesses and bullet identification."

The other end of the line went silent. Then his father said, "I see. I presume you want his address."

"You do have it, right?"

"Warehouse B17."

Dussell slammed his hand on his desk, knocking aside a few pins. "That's not possible. It was a hideout for petty thieves just a few days ago."

"The address was given to us two days ago. It might be a trap."

"Doesn't matter. It's the only lead we have. Also, do you know why he attack Nazrick?"

"We never asked. And son, nice work."

The line clicked. Dussell gently set the phone on the receiver and walked out of his office. He took a deep breath and shouted, "Listen up! We have a breakthrough on the case. I want twenty of you in squad cars. We're heading to Warehouse B17. Grab the guns and the riot gear. We don't know what's waiting for us, so stay sharp."

Dussell tapped Fale on the shoulder and said, "You're with me." Fale nodded and grabbed his keys. They drove at the rear of the squad of cars. Their sirens were off, and they stealthily slunk through narrow alleys and side streets into the warehouse district.

"So sir, I suppose you and I will be getting promotions soon."

"I don't know. You did blackmail me, remember?"

Fale's hands slipped, and the car swerved before he righted it. "Blackmail? That? I wouldn't call it blackmail, sir, more like a persuasive argument. And besides, think of how much I did for you this past week."

"Fine, I'll overlook it. Try not to be so… persuasive in the future."

They turned into the warehouse district and drove down the B section. Once they were a hundred feet of 17, Dussell doubled over and grabbed his chest. Fale hit the brakes and pulled over.

"What are you doing? Keep going!"

"You're crazy, you know that? Come on, let's get you to a nice soft seat in the grass."

Fale turned around and drove to one of the warehouses. One of the cars in front turned back as well while the others stopped. Fale had Dussell lie down against a warehouse as Officer Kaska approached them.

"Is something wrong?" Kaska asked.

"Chief's not feeling well."

"Let me go Fale," Dussell said, shoving him aside and standing up. "See? I'm fine."

Dussell walked towards Warehouse Seventeen, but he didn't make it ten feet before collapsing again. Fale grabbed him and pulled him back to the grass.

"Sir, just sit here," Fale said. "Kaska, have the others go on. Secure all exits before entering, and don't fire unless attacked."

"On it," Kaska said, dashing back to the parked cars. Dussell tried to follow after them, but Fale held him down.

"Just wait here. They'll be back in a minute with a report, okay?"

"I should be with them."

"Come on Chief, don't hog all the promotions. Let us underlings get some credit once in a while. Besides, you need rest. How much sleep did you get?"

"More than you did, Fale. You've got bags under your eyes."

"It's not my fault you're such a cruel Chief, Chief."

Fale sat down next to Dussell. He stared up at the night sky. It was a moonless, cloudless night, and clusters of stars dimly speckled the pitch black expanse above them.

"What do you think is out there?" Fale asked.

"Out where?"

"In the stars. Do you think we'd ever get up there?"

"What's the point? Everything we need is down here."

"Heh. I suppose so." Fale pressed his shoulder against the warehouse's wall and leaned forward. "Ah, looks like the others are getting back. Let's go."

Dussell leaned on Fale's shoulder as they walked back to their car. Kaska walked up to them, holding a note and a bullet.

"These were found on the warehouse floor, sir. Other than that, it was empty."

Dussell snapped the seal open and read the note.

 _That zoroark was a warning. If Ath is not dead in two days, I will start killing. Keith._

Dussell's hands shook as he reread the note. Fale peeked around his arms and read as well.

"Damn. I guess we won't be getting any sleep for a few days."

Dussell glared at him and folded the note into his pocket.

"Let's go," he told the officers. "We have work to do."


	11. Chapters 23-25

Chapter 23: Alicia de Renera

When Alicia woke up, she was alone. She picked up her dress and hung it in the closet, and then she gathered other clothes from the floor and put them on. She looked around for Arkus, but he wasn't in the apartment. His clothes were straightened and put away, and his shoes were gone.

Her stomach grumbled, and she opened the fridge. It was empty. She opened all the cabinets, but there wasn't a scrap of food anywhere. She went into her bedroom for her purse, and as she walked out, she saw a hair shining on the bed. She picked it up and held it to the sunlight. It was a deep, rich blue that made the sky look dun by comparison.

"I know I've seen this before," she muttered. "But where did you come from?"

She thought of all the humans and pokemon she had ever seen, but none had fur anywhere close to that sapphire hue. She placed the hair on the counter and left for the door when she remembered she needed to return the history book. She took the book from Arkus' dresser and flipped through it.

The crinkle of pages made her think of the library, and she remembered where she first saw such a hair, on a table at the library. Arkus' table. She could feel an anxiety nibbling away at her thoughts, but she couldn't place it. She turned more pages until she reached the portraits. Keith's face stared out at her from the pages, his blue fur resplendent with ground sapphires and vivid ink. She felt her stomach sink with terror. She dropped the book and backed into the fridge. A shelf clattered and fell inside it.

"No, that's not possible. It can't be. Perhaps it was fabric from my dress. Yes, that's it."

She knew it wasn't the dress. She kept rationalizing the hair's presence, only to find flaws in each argument. Then she thought there would be more hairs on his bed. To her delight, his bed was immaculately clean.

"There, see, it was just the dress." She chuckled to herself and said, "I should get some breakfast. Yes, it must be the hunger playing with my nerves."

As she walked through the kitchen, she caught a glimmer of blue coming from the sink. She looked and saw a hair dangling from the sink's food trap. Her fingers shook as she plucked it out and held it next to the other.

The door opened, and Arkus walked in, holding a large paper bag. He had on a white robe that swayed with his steps. Alicia jumped and shrieked.

"Sorry, did I startle you?" he asked. "I brought back breakfast."

She could smell breakfast sausages and scrambled eggs in the bag, and her stomach roiled. She sagged to the floor and started crying.

Arkus rushed over and asked, "What's wrong? Did something happen?"

Alicia held up the hairs in her hand. Arkus took them.

"Where did you find these?"

Alicia choked down her sobs and rubbed at her eyes. "One in the bed. The other w-was in the sink."

Arkus stood up and glanced at the book on the counter. He sighed and said, "I see. I guess I wasn't thinking straight last night."

Alicia looked up and shouted "Tell me it isn't true!" and gasped when she saw Keith. His blue hair glimmered in the morning sun, and his scarlet eyes stared down at her. She backed away, wailing and shouting "No!" as she curled into a ball.

"I'm sorry it had to be this way."

"Are you — are you going to kill me?" she asked between sobs.

"I won't. Come on; let's get you off the floor."

"Stay away from me!"

Arkus scooped her into his arms and carried her into her bedroom. He placed her on the bed and sat down next to her. She squirmed across the bed, dragging the sheets with her.

"Why did you do this? Why? Why did you drag me into this?"

"I didn't have a choice. My power is toxic to others. If I use too much, or worse, get killed, everyone else will die. Even standing around me would kill you if it was for too long, but the diamonds on your engagement band absorb stray Aura. It's not much, but it's enough to keep you safe."

"Do you really have to kill the Father?" Alicia asked. "You could stop, move on, leave all that weight behind."

Arkus clenched his hands. "I see her every time I close my eyes, the moment she's killed. I wake up every morning with my arms reaching for the ceiling, trying to catch her. I can't keep living like this, Alicia."

She rubbed the tears out of her fur and asked, "What now?"

"I know where he is now. I'll just kill him and leave."

"There'll be guards, dozens of them now they know you're back."

"That was the point of the wedding. With just the three of us, I could've killed him and escaped before anyone knew what was happening. Now I'll have to risk it."

"So, you were planning on leaving me from the start? How could you?"

"I planned to change your memory, make you think Keith killed Arkus during your wedding. I know it's cruel, but it would've been better than the truth."

Alicia slapped him and said, "We even had sex! How could you?"

Arkus rubbed his cheek and looked away. "I — I wasn't thinking straight. I'm sorry. I'll leave now."

Arkus stood up and turned the doorknob. Alicia whispered, "Please wait."

"There's nothing I can do to make this right."

"What if I helped you?"

Arkus stopped and looked at her. His eyes widened with surprise. "What did you just say?"

"I — I can't go back." Alicia pulled the sheets around herself. "Not after how wonderful it felt. Not after putting my mother to shame. I can't go back to her constant ridicule, I just can't."

"You would help me kill your own Father just to keep everything the way it is?"

"My Father? I always found that name strange. He wasn't the one that held me in his arms, or read stories at bedtime, or cooked, or walked me to school. No, my father's dead, and I've been alone ever since. I don't want to be alone anymore."

"Think about it Alicia. Do you really want to be with me for the rest of your life?"

"Marriage is nothing more than an agreement between two people, no love required. You said so yourself, remember?"

Arkus closed the door and sat on the bed. He held out his hand, and Alicia took it. She crawled over and sat next to him.

"Are you sure you want to do this?"

Alicia gave him a weak smile. "Of course. What other choice do I have?"

Tears welled up in her eyes. She buried her face in Arkus' shoulder and started sobbing.

"I don't — I don't even know what I'm doing, do I?"

Arkus ran his hand through her hair and stroked the back of her neck. "It'll be okay. Come on, breakfast is getting cold."

"No thanks. My stomach isn't up for it."

"Your stomach? Wait, are you pregnant?"

Alicia giggled at Arkus' horrified expression and said, "No, I'm not. I made sure of it. My mother taught me that much, at least."

"Well, would you like some tea, then? I could go get some."

"No, stay here please. I don't want to be alone."

Alicia took Arkus' hand and intertwined their fingers. She leaned onto his shoulder and draped her hair over him.

"You don't have to do this, you know," he said.

"I've made up my mind. I won't be scared anymore."

They sat in silence, watching the shadows move across the room as the sun rose. Alicia felt a hush come over her, this necessity to keep the silence between them. Her breathing slowed to the faintest swish of air through her throat.

In the kitchen, one of the boxes in the paper bag fell over, breaking the silence. Alicia asked, "Do you still have that bottle? You know, the one in the book."

Arkus reached into his robe and pulled out a small black bottle. He placed it on her nightstand.

"You know what it does, right? You could become one of us if you drank it."

Alicia felt him stiffen, and his scowl was as hard as rubies.

"Never," he said. "That's something I could never do."

Alicia's stomach rumbled, and Arkus' growled in response. He stood up, put the bottle away, and straightened out her hair.

"Come on," he said, "let's have some breakfast."

Chapter 24: Lorende

It's been two days since Eck told her the plans. She fretted over Arkus' plans as she sorted through the papers on her desk. It seemed too complex to her, with too many ways to fall apart, like a gnarled ball of yarn that collapses into a heap under a kitten's paws. What grated at her the most, though, was the fact he slept with a zoroark.

"Calm down," she muttered to herself. "He knows what's best. He has to, after six hundred years of planning and training."

She also worried about the humans. She had expected them all to be tense after the announcement of their Savior's arrival and imminent victory, but she hadn't expected their sullenness. She saw it in the corners of their eyes. Anytime they looked directly at her, their eyes carried the respect she was accustomed to, but at the obliquest of angles, the veil fell, and scorn clouded their eyes.

She sorted through another sheaf of papers without looking at them, and realized that she had scribbled all over her hand. She wiped the ink on a paper's back and stood up, telling herself to get some air.

When she walked outside, she saw columns of metal cables lining the cavernous hallways. Men brought in metal chairs and fastened them to holes in the cables.

"What's going on here?" Lorende asked.

"Arkus' orders," the woman nearest to her answered. "It's in preparation of our victory."

"He didn't tell me about such plans. Where's Eck, I need to speak with him."

"The dining hall, I think," one man said, but the others around him shot him angry scowls and he hastily amended, "Actually, I think he went out, to uh, get ready."

"Thank you," Lorende said. "Do you think the soup's ready yet? I'm feeling a bit peckish."

"No Mistress," a man said. "Soup won't be ready for a few more hours."

"That's a shame. Well, there's always the pantry. I think I'll grab myself a loaf of bread."

She walked towards the dining hall, and the men around the door moved to bar her way.

"The dining room's closed," they said. "There's important work going on in there."

"Let me through. I need to speak with Eck."

"Eck's not in there," they said, "We already told you."

"Then why won't you let me in there?" She tried ducking around them, but they stretched out their arms in a human wall. She was debating jumping over them when Eck spoke from inside the dining hall.

"It's alright," he said, "Let her though. Preparations are complete."

The men slid aside. Lorende caught one of them smiling as she approached the door. She felt a chill move up her gelatinous arm as she gripped the doorknob. She twisted it slowly, and peered around the door as she opened it.

The tables were gone. Instead, metal cables dangled from the walls and ceilings like the arteries around a heart. Seven chairs occupied the room, six around the walls and one in the center. A labyrinth of cables extended out from the center chair, feeding into the underground.

Eck sat in the center chair, one leg folded over the other. He gave her a wide toothy grin as Lorende crept into the room.

"You needed to speak with me?" he asked.

"Yes, Eck. I need to know what all these tubes are for."

"Oh, those?" He opened his arms and said, "They're a precaution, in case something happens to our Savior."

"And why wasn't I told this?"

"Our savior is a busy man, and so am I. I meant no offense by leaving you out of the proceedings."

"What's going on Eck? All of you are acting so strange."

"I'm sure it's the excitement. Anyways, please come here. There's something I need to tell you that I don't want overheard."

"What about in my office then? Surely we would less likely be overheard there."

Eck's smile vanished for a moment, then it returned and he said, "I would like to, but I'm afraid I feel quite weary. I need to preserve my strength before the final battle."

Lorende glanced around the room. She feared a trap for a moment, but she couldn't see anything hidden in the wires. She took a cautious step forward, then another. On the third step, she faintly heard a _snick_ above her. She leapt back, just as a clear, heavy tube fell from the ceiling, slicing off Lorende's hand. Pink slime dripped from her mutilated limb as the severed piece melted into a pink blob.

Eck turned his head to his left and said, "Damn it, she was too fast."

Another person materialized into view, a woman without any hair. "Make sure she doesn't get away," she said, "Such a specimen would help our research a lot."

"Eck! Why? What's going on?"

Eck gave her a feral grin and walked towards her. Lorende backed away from the door, massaging her severed limb back into a seamless whole.

"You're a pokemon, right? That makes you one of the enemy. And though I admit you've done humanity a great service, no doubt you would turn on us sooner or later. We can't allow you to pollute our Savior any further."

"This is madness! Who told you such lies?"

"Seize her!" Eck shouted. Humans poured into the hall, surrounding her. As they pounced, Lorende balled up her mass and sprung onto the ceiling. She transformed into an ariados and crawled out the top of the door, just out of the reach of the mob's outstretched hands.

In the hallway, one person stood on another's shoulders and reached for her. She liquefied and transformed into a raticate on the floor. She scampered through the feet of more humans before changing into a pidgey and flying past the guards.

Once she was out of the hideout, she flew straight to Arkus' apartment. She squeezed in through the cracks in the window. She solidified into her human appearance and checked the apartment, but he was already gone.

"Now what do I do?" She scoured the apartment for any clues about his whereabouts, and though she knew he was to be married, he never told her where. Her mind raced for ideas until she saw the phone sitting in the living room. She thought for a moment before picking up the phone and dialing the police.

"Palsitore Police Department, what is your emergency?" the officer on the line said.

"I have an anonymous tip for the police. It's about Keith."

"Keith? How do you know about that? Who told you?"

"In Lorie's House of Pleasure, in the right hallway, the last door on the left, there's a staircase leading down to a large series of caves. That's where he's hiding."

"Wait a minute, who are you? How did you find out about—"

Lorende hung up, and then she left the apartment through the front door. She prodded the metal box lodged in her chest as she asked herself, "Brother, what did you want me to do?"

Chapter 25: Eck

Agent Eighty-One scooped the pink sludge into a test tube and sealed it with a cork. She turned it in the air and tapped it with her fingernail.

"I apologize for letting her get away," he said. "Should I send someone after her?"

"Don't bother. Though I would've liked to collect the whole specimen, this should be sufficient for our experiments. We also have larger priorities."

"Yes, you're right. She won't be able to warn him. It has already begun."

Eck walked down the halls, his arms stretched towards the throngs of people around him. "My fellow comrades," he shouted, "Today is a glorious day! Today is the day we take back this planet from the ones that stole it from us! And leave no one out of our triumph. Collect the young, the old, the sick, and the wounded, so they might receive the Savior's grace!"

Their cheering roared behind Eck as he stepped outside and began his war against the pokemon.


	12. Chapters 26-27

Chapter 26: Dussell de Baltham

Dussell stared at the mounds of reports piled on his desk. His eyes ached for a single minute of sleep, but he held up his brow as he swallowed another mug of coffee. With a groan, he pushed the papers aside and walked out into the lobby.

Heste had set up a table, pushing aside a cluster of desks to set up a soup line. She poured cups of coffee and ladled bowls of soup for each officer in the station.

He walked up to the table and took the cup of coffee she held out. He drained it in one gulp and held his hand out for another.

"Heste, go home," he told her as she refilled his cup. "Just because I have to stay up doesn't mean you do."

"Someone has to keep you fed and on your feet. Have a bowl of soup. It's your favorite."

Dussell took a bowl and poured it into his mouth. Broth ran down the sides of his mouth, staining his uniform. Heste grabbed a napkin and wiped up the mess.

"Sir!" Kaska shouted. His jagged yellow tail knocked aside a few lamps as he jogged over to the chief. "We got something!"

Dussell dropped the bowl onto the table. "Is it Keith?"

"Uh, I think so, sir. Someone gave us an anonymous tip-off. She said he'd be at Lorie's and gave specific instructions to find his hiding spot. There's apparently a system of caverns running beneath the brothel."

"That has to be a trap," Fale said. He grabbed a bowl of soup and took a long, bubbling sip. "Why else would someone be calling about Keith when we have the media silent?"

"In any case, we can't ignore this," Dussell said. "Send ten officers there immediately."

"Sir! Sir!" Another officer sprinted towards the chief, knocking aside desks and shoving fellow officers. "Arkus was spotted south of City Council! He's standing on a roof, calling us out!"

"Everyone, grab your guns!" Dussell roared. "We're confronting Arkus immediately! Someone tell the Board where he is, and then follow after us."

"What about the hideout?" Fale asked.

"Leave it. We'll need every man we can get. Come on, let's move!"

"Come back in one piece," Heste said.

"Don't worry, I will. Promise."

The police cars raced towards the scene. Once they reached the old brick building, the cars screeched to a stop in a barricading semicircle. The officers raced out of their cars, ran behind the barricade, and pointed their guns at the human standing at the edge of the flat rooftop.

"Three minutes," he said, "I'm impressed. So, is this everyone, or are more going to show up?"

"Open fire!" Dussell shouted. The air rang with the retorts of dozens of guns, but all the bullets were deflected by a thin barrier of blue energy.

"Is that all you've got?" he asked. "It's a bit disappointing, really. I was hoping I'd get to fight some zoroark. Oh, like you down there! Hello!" The man leaned forward and waved at him. "Aren't you going to go after me?"

"What are you planning, Keith?"

"Now why would I tell you that? So, are you going to keep wasting my time, or are we going to fight?"

Fale walked towards Dussell and whispered, "Um, so what's the plan here?"

"We wait for the others to arrive. They'll be here in a few seconds."

"Ah, gotcha. Should I try to distract him?"

Dussell scanned the rooftops and saw a crowd of shadowy figures gathering on the higher rooftops. "Go ahead. They're here."

"Great. Let's hope this doesn't get me killed." Fale stood up and walked in front of the cars. "Hey Keith! Mind if I ask you something?"

"Go ahead, I have plenty of time."

"Were you always that ugly, or is that old age?"

The second after he finished his question a barrage of dark missiles rained down on the roof, smashing the building to rubble. The man stood on a broken piece of roof, surrounded by a protective blue aura.

"That wasn't very nice," he said. "But at least the fun's about to start. Catch me if you can!"

With an explosion of blue light, the human raced down an alley, spraying chunks of building behind him. The officers ducked behind their cars as they were pelted with stones. One unlucky officer's leg was crushed under a building corner.

"Get him to the hospital," Dussell said, pointing at two officers. "The rest of you, pursue him!"

"Yes sir!"

Dussell led the chase on the ground, while the other zoroark pursued him from the rooftops. The man ducked in and out of alleys, leapt onto buildings, and flung orbs of blue light at his pursuers. A few officers went down with bruised chests and broken ribs, but the rest kept up the chase. They wound through the city, sometimes doubling back to the broken building.

The chase went on for two hours, long past the point the men ran out of bullets and energy, yet they never lost sight of their target. Then suddenly, the man leapt into the rubble and faced them. He was immediately surrounded by the zoroark, who flung spears of jagged darkness at him. His shield remained unscathed by their attack.

Once Dussell caught up and joined the others, he asked, "Weren't you going to start killing us today?"

"Oh yes," he answered, "But not yet. I thought about killing you now, but I want you to know true despair first." He looked down at a watch on his wrist and said, "Oh my, look at the time. I better not keep the Father waiting."

And in a flash, he vanished. The zoroark attacked him, but their energies crackled on nothing but stone and empty air.

"Damn it! Fan out and find him!"

"Slippery bastard, isn't he?" Fale asked. He panted as his hands fumbled to reload his gun. "Makes me wonder how we got that first witness."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, he fires from rooftops, right? You'd have to be up there with him to see his face clearly. What did you say his name was again?"

"Alex Bayson."

"Alex? You mean that radio reporter? I heard she was in the hospital."

Then it dawned on Dussell. Their target said "the Father" when Keith would say "Ath." He sat down and flipped through his notebook.

"Chief, you got something?"

"That wasn't Keith," he muttered, tearing pages out and arranging them on the ground in front of him. "We've been tricked."

"Wait, if that's not Keith, then who is?"

"That's what I need to figure out now, and the key to that is the last mystery I have. Nazrick. Why did Keith go there? What was he after?"

"Maybe Keith's into jewelry?" Fale asked with a weak grin.

"Fale, please, this isn't the time for — holy fuck. Jewelry. That's it. The only way he'd get to our Father alone is…"

Dussell rolled forward and sprinted towards the cars. Fale ran after him, shouting "What is it Chief?"

"No time! Get in the damn car right now!"

Dussell floored the accelerator before Fale could buckle his seat. A sudden swerve slammed against the wigglytuff.

"Ow," he moaned, rubbing his head. "Sir, would you please tell me what's going on?"

"Keith's been disguising himself. He played the witness, and he's marrying a zoroark to confront our Father alone."

"And Nazrick?"

"Jewelry for the engagement band. Alicia's was custom made by a jewelsmith who was thought to be retired. It all makes sense."

"But why go through the trouble of stealing diamonds? He could've just bought them, or bought an engagement band."

Dussell didn't answer as they drove up to the City Council.

"So this is where they hold the weddings? Go figure. Wait, what are you doing? No, stop!"

Dussell drove the car up the stairs and through the main doors. The car's front crumpled up, and the engine shuddered to a stop as the car coasted into the room. Dussell unbuckled his seatbelt and flung himself through the broken windshield, while Fale yanked the dented door open and sprinted after him. They went down into the meeting hall and opened a hidden door at the far end of the room. At the end of the hall was a small wooden door. Dussell kicked it down and raised his gun as he stormed into the room.

"Hands up Keith! I know all about your plans."

Chapter 27: Alicia de Renera

Alicia pulled down the blinds and opened the window. Thick grey clouds blanketed the sky, and the air was warm and heavy with the rain that refused to fall.

"Why couldn't we have a little sunshine?" Alicia asked. "This is no weather for a wedding."

"What does the weather matter? The wedding's inside anyways."

"Yes, I suppose." She made a comb between her fingers and ran it through her hair. "Mother isn't coming. That invitation you sent her really pissed her off."

Arkus smiled and put on his tuxedo. "Good. I wouldn't want her there even if I wasn't going to kill Ath."

Alicia snapped the engagement band onto her wrist. She held the diamonds under the lamplight, watching them sparkle. "You went through a lot of trouble to make this, didn't you?"

"I did." Arkus took her wrist and ran his fingers along the metal. "There's a little bit of me in each of those diamonds. Silver's also a great conductor, it lets the Aura flow in. Here, let's get your dress on."

Arkus took her wedding dress out of the closet. He had it tailored the day before. He tied the sleek silk fabric together on the back while she slid her arms through the airy sleeves. The silk felt like a lake against her skin, cool and serene.

"You look beautiful," Arkus said. He ran his hand through her hair, straightening out loose ends.

Alicia took his hand and asked, "Are you ready?"

Arkus opened his tuxedo, revealing the sniper rifle tucked inside. "Are you?" he asked.

Alicia held up her engagement band. "I'm ready." Then she felt a spasm of pain from her belly and doubled over onto the bed.

"Are you alright?"

"I'm just nauseous, that's all," Alicia said through gritted teeth. "It must be nerves." She stood up and leaned on the bedpost. "See? I'm fine. We should get going."

One of Alicia's cousins picked them up in a long black car and drove them to the City Hall. A dozen zoroark escorted them down into the meeting room, to a hidden door at the room's end. Two more zoroark waited at the end of a long hallway, guarding a small, plain wooden door. They pressed themselves against the stone walls to make room for Alicia and Arkus.

Beyond the door was a small chapel. A silver chandelier, dripping with the wax of its candles, lit the room. Four wooden benches formed a square in front of a large stone platform. The Father sat in a smooth stone chair. The arms and back were carved with circular symbols and held The Father's medical equipment. A stone basin sat in front of him, in it swirled a viscous dark liquid. A knife was perched on the basin's rim, its stone handle carved with flowing esoteric symbols. Two more chairs faced the Father. Arkus took the seat on the left. Alicia took the right.

"Welcome," the Father said. "How are the two of you today?"

Alicia grabbed her stomach. "I don't know why, but my stomach's in knots."

The Father smiled and said "Congratulations." Then he turned towards the door and told the guards to leave. Their footsteps echoed down the stone hall into silence.

"Now we may begin. Though the family is under attack once again, I feel nothing but joy. To think I lived to see the day that such a lovely great-granddaughter of mine will marry such a fine young man. Yes, I haven't been this happy in some time."

The Father leaned over the basin and touched Alicia's hand. The scars on his face bled and mixed with the tears in his eyes. "Truth be told, I don't have much time left, a few weeks at most. It's why I insisted on having the marriage done now. I hope you can forgive my haste."

Alicia took his hand and said, "Of course. But shouldn't you be in bed?"

"I haven't missed a single marriage in six hundred years. I won't be starting now." The Father leaned back and cleared his throat. "Now that you are before me, ready to make your wedding vows, there are questions I must ask. You must answer them truthfully and to the fullest extent of your knowledge. Now, what do you desire most?"

"Peace," Arkus answered immediately. Alicia pondered a while longer and said, "To not be alone."

"What are you willing to give to achieve that desire?"

"Anything," Arkus said. Alicia mirrored his response.

"Are you willing to help each other achieve their desires?"

"Yes," they answered together.

"And will you remain with each other, in sickness and in health, in triumph and failure, in life and death, through all obstacles in your path, until the day you die?"

"Yes," Alicia answered first. Arkus said "yes" after a moment.

"Then take the knife and prick a finger. Add your blood to the blood of our family and become one with us."

Alicia made the first cut. Her blood ran along the length of the blade as she held it over the basin and flicked off a crimson drop. Arkus took the knife and made a long cut in his left hand. Blood welled up on his palm, and he squeezed a drop into the basin.

"It is done. You shall remain husband and wife until your deaths." The Father smiled and said, "I'm honestly surprised, Keith, that you went through the whole ceremony."

The illusion around Arkus melted. "You knew."

"Yes, since you walked into this room, I knew it was you. I also didn't expect you to get one of my children pregnant. That was quite a shock."

"Wait, I'm pregnant?" Alicia asked, grabbing her belly. "How?"

"Our powers were never much good against his. But that's beside the point. I trust you came here for a different reason, right Keith?"

Arkus took the sniper rifle out of his tuxedo and pointed it at him. "Right. I came to accept that offer you gave me six hundred years ago."

"The one demanding my life in exchange for my family's safety? Yes, I accept. However, I must ask you to leave this city as well. Some of my children are already falling ill because of your presence."

"I understand. We have a deal."

Arkus raised the rifle. "You've been in a lot of pain since that day, haven't you?"

"I have."

"I'll make this quick then. But before that, do you have anything else to say?" Arkus took his hand off his gun and wiped it on his pants. "Funny, I didn't think my hands would be sweating this much."

"Just get on with it," the Father said. "Do what must be done."

"Yes, it must. Say hello to Verra for me."

The Father opened his mouth, but the sound of footsteps stopped him. A second later, the door flew apart, and a zoroark stormed into the room.

"Hands up Keith!" he shouted. "I know all about your plans."

"Stand down Dussell, that's an order," the Father croaked. "You must not fight him."

More footsteps echoed down the hall. "Dussell, what is the meaning of this?" Two more zoroark and a wigglytuff entered the room and stared in shock at Arkus. "How is he here? Kill him now!"

"Silence!" the Father shouted. He coughed up a spray of blood. "Leave him. This is how it has to be."

"Don't say that Father!" Dussell pointed his gun at Arkus and said, "We cannot allow you to die. We would be lost without your wisdom."

"I already gave you a successor! Now let me die in peace!"

"No," Arkus said. He tossed his gun aside. It clattered along the stone floor and came to a stop at Dussell's feet. Dussell backed away from the rifle and pointed his pistol at it. "I know you want death, Ath, but I cannot be the one to give it to you. Not now. They would try to kill me if I did."

The Father reached towards him and said, "You don't trust them, do you?"

"I did the same thing myself."

"So, that's it then?" a voice asked from an empty corner. "You're not going to keep your promise?"

"Eck, is that you?" Arkus asked. "Why are you here, and why can't I see you?"

"You were meant to restore humanity to its rightful place. I feared your new body would weaken your resolve, and I was right. Never fear, I will carry out your mission in your place."

Eck appeared behind the Father and placed his gauntleted hand over the Father's brow. He squeezed, and the Father's head burst into a fountain of blood, spraying the chapel with bits of bone and brain. The Father's body slumped forward and hit the floor.

"Bastard!" Dussell shouted. He fired three times, and Eck blocked the bullets with a wave of his hand.

"I had hoped you would see the rise of humanity before your death, but I suppose I should kill you now."

Eck held out his hand, palm forward, and a ball of blue light gathered. Arkus dashed in front of the attack and blocked it.

"Stop this!" Arkus shouted. "You'll kill everyone if you keep this up!"

"Silence! I will not allow you to interfere with humanity's destiny! Now stand aside!"

"Never!"

Eck chuckled and ran a hand over his face. "Then I suppose I'll have to make you."

His hand poured out a beam of Aura. Arkus blocked with a thin blue barrier, and their Aura crackled as it clashed, spraying blue sparks across the room. The stone hissed and popped from the energy. The basin cracked, and blood leaked onto the floor. Alicia's engagement band glowed, and it grew hot to the touch. She could smell her fur being singed, but she was too stunned to move.

She heard a grunt of pain behind her. She turned to see Dussell collapsed on a bench, breathing spastically as he grabbed his chest. The other two zoroark sagged against the wall, gasping for breath. She felt her heart pounding in her chest, and her vision blurred, smearing the chapel into a red grey haze. She sagged onto a bench and pressed her cheek against the cool, damp stone.

"Hey, chief!" the wigglytuff shouted, shaking Dussell. "Stay with me! Come on, wake up!" The wigglytuff took a radio out of his pocket and said, "This is Officer Fale! We need back-up, now! Get all the police and an ambulance – no, three - over to City Hall now!"

Dussell screamed. Blood poured from his eyes and nose, and his chest heaved. He vomited soup on the floor, mixing the smell of bile with blood. Fale rushed to his side and dragged him out of the room.

Arkus looked back at the mess behind him, closed his eyes, and let go. Eck's Aura slammed into his chest, and he flew into a bench, smashing it to pieces. Arkus' arms shook as he stood.

"Why did you stop?" Eck asked.

"Look around," Arkus answered. "This is what Aura does. I can't allow everyone to die."

"Don't worry about that. It's all taken care of."

"What do you mean?"

Eck crushed a stone beneath his foot and held a hand towards Arkus. "Come with me. If you don't, I'll kill everyone here."

Arkus took his hand and stood. Alicia reached towards them, but they vanished just before they reached the door. Then she passed out, toppling forward into a puddle of blood.


	13. Chapters 28-29

Chapter 28: Alicia de Renera

When Alicia woke, a blue, blurry face loomed over her. A slow, rhythmic beeping sound came from a metal box behind her. A thin plastic tube snaked down her throat, and a slimmer tube coiled around her nose. She felt her lungs swimming in oxygen. She looked around, but all she could see was a fuzzy white room. The room shuddered, and she heard the sound of a car horn. There was a bed underneath her, covered in a thin paper sheet, and to her sides, there were two more figures.

"How many fingers am I holding up?" the person above her asked. It sounded as though she was underwater. She could vaguely see two thin shapes in front of her eyes.

"T-t-two," she stammered through the tube. Her tongue felt like a block of ice.

"She's fine, just some shock," the person said. "Hopefully her child will make it too. Let the Board know they can talk to her once we arrive."

 _The child,_ she thought. Her mind sluggishly wrapped itself around that thought. _That's right, I have a baby. His baby. I wonder what we should name him. Maybe it will be a girl. I wonder which one of us he'll take after._

The thought turned into a pile of icy needles, pricking her arms and legs. _What are they going to do when they find out? I shouldn't tell them. But wait, wouldn't they find out anyways? What if the child looks like him? How could we hide him? Leave? I don't want to go._

A tear rolled down her cheek. One of the figures wiped it away with a claw and stroked her arm. Her vision cleared somewhat, and she could vaguely see the nurse's uniform the black-and-purple figure wore.

"It's alright, you're safe. We're almost there. We need you to tell them what happened, can you do that?"

Alicia nodded. The breathing tube flexed and shifted around, making her throat itch.

"Good. It won't be much longer. Just breathe and relax."

 _Breathe. Relax. Yes, no, no. Something's wrong. Arkus, that's right, what happened to him? The baby. Without him, what will I do? Where is he? Where did Eck take him? Why? Why did it have to happen this way?_

The beeping hastened and two thick fingers pressed against her neck. "Crank up the oxygen, we have to keep her conscious."

 _Where are they taking me? The Board. He said something about the Board. What will they ask me? What should I say? Why did you leave? Don't go don't go don't go. Why me?_

The room shuddered to a stop, and a door opened behind her. Her bed was wheeled out, and she saw the round black tires of the ambulance. The doctors whisked her up a ramp, through a set of glass doors, and down a short hallway. One doctor, a machoke, lifted her out of the bed into another, this one sinking under her weight. She was submerged in warmth, and she felt her eyelids sag closed. Her breathing tube was removed with a wet sucking sound, and her throat, exposed to the dry hospital air, burned.

"Don't put too much stress on her," the doctor said. "She's in severe shock, and I don't know how long we can keep her awake."

"We only need a minute," another voice said. She looked up and saw herself surrounded by tall black figures, with a pink blob at the foot of her bed. Three more beds sat on the opposite side of the room, and she saw more black figures in them. One she could hear wheezing and coughing faintly from her bed.

She squinted closer at the one that spoke. His face and chest were lined with vivid red scars, and his yellow eyes were dimmed with age. He carried a gold-tipped cane over his shoulder, and he wore a short, wide-brimmed white hat.

 _Sorcen's here. The Board's here. Why me?_

"Alicia, can you hear me?" Sorcen asked.

Alicia lifted her head from the pillow. Sorcen put a hand behind her head and helped prop her up.

"I need to ask you a few questions, can you answer them?"

"Yes," she croaked.

"Good. Do you remember what happened?"

She smelled blood. All she could see was the Father's headless torso slumped into the pool of his own blood.

"Father's dead."

"So you remember." Sorcen leaned closer and said, "We heard most of what happened from Fale, but he doesn't know how it ended. What happened to Keith and the human?"

The ceiling blurred in and out of focus, and the room slowly spun. She felt sweat trickling over her eyes, and her arms twitched. She gasped for air, but she couldn't get enough into her tired lungs.

"Damn, I can't lose you yet." Sorcen placed a hand over her head and muttered a few words. In seconds, Alicia's vision returned, and her breathing slowed. Her mind felt as though it was sitting in an ice bath, She pushed herself out from under the covers and faced Sorcen.

 _Something's going to happen. They need to know. But how much to tell them? I can't let them. They can't know, but they can know this._

"Eck took him." She licked her lips and said, "Took Keith, somewhere."

"Eck? You mean that human?"

The wigglytuff snapped his fingers and shouted, "I was right! Yes! One of the officers recognized the human. He lost a paycheck betting against him. I had the officers do some digging, and sure enough, his name was Eck, and Arkus bought him a week ago. It's as the chief suspected. Keith was Arkus."

The zoroark murmured among themselves. Once they fell silent, Socren asked, "How did they get out?"

"They vanished."

"Do you know where they went?"

Alicia closed her eyes. Sorcen's hand reached behind her head, but she sat forward, and the hand receded. She ran through the scenario in her mind, holding back tears when she remembered the blood pouring from Dussell's eyes. Not once did Eck mention a location.

"No." Then she thought of it. "No, wait. I might know. Lorie's. There's a hidden room somewhere, but I don't know where."

"Did you say Lorie's?" Fale asked. "Were you the one that sent the anonymous call?"

"Call? What call?" Sorcen asked.

"No wait, you couldn't have. You were already at the wedding." Fale turned to Sorcen and said, "We got an anonymous tip-off about a hideout in Lorie's, with the location."

A doctor knocked on the door. "Pardon me, but Dussell's wife is here."

"We're still busy," a zoroark said. "It'll have to wait."

"It's fine, let her in," Sorcen said.

The doctor stepped out, and returned with Heste. "I'm sorry, but he won't last more than ten minutes," he said. "Let me know if there's anything I can do for you."

Heste ran to the bed and grabbed Dussell's hand. She tapped his shoulder and whispered in his ear. Alicia shoved herself out of bed and stood closer. The other zoroark gathered a respectful distance away. Fale's radio went off, and he went outside to answer it.

"Dussell, honey, can you hear me?"

His hand twitched. Dussell's eyes were crushed red globs that oozed blood, and most of his skin was burned away. His voice was thin, and each word bubbled out of his throat. "Heste, is that you?"

"I'm here."

A smile crept on Dussell's blood-smeared lips. "I made it back in one piece. I promised. Back in one piece."

"Yes you did. Don't worry, everything's going to be fine."

"I – I can't see. Can you tell the doctors to turn the lights on?"

Heste's hands shook. "They're on."

"Oh." Dussell's face twitched, and he thrashed weakly in his bed. "Oh Father, what have I done? What have I done?"

"What? What is it honey?"

"I'm so sorry, sorry, so sorry, it's all my fault, I was afraid I would be a terrible father, I was too afraid, I'm sorry."

Heste gently pressed his shoulders down and said, "It's alright, Dussell, it's alright. What is it?"

"I kept you from getting pregnant. I'm sorry, Heste, forgive me please, I was too scared, I couldn't do it."

Heste closed her eyes and wiped the tears from her face. "D-don't worry about it. Just breathe, honey. You'll be alright."

Dussell's hand reached up Heste's arm. "Closer, please." Heste leaned forward. His hand reached up her elbow. "Closer." Heste leaned above his bed, and his hand moved to her chest. She held his hand against her stomach and said, "It will be alright."

"I'm so sorry." Alicia saw a tiny dark spark surge up his arm and into Heste. His body shook, and he began coughing up blood. The doctors rushed to his side and turned him over. He spat up a gallon of blood before his body shuddered and went still.

A silence fell over the room. Alicia held her breath, and she sensed the others doing the same. Heste stepped back from the bed and touched her belly. A tear rolled down her cheek.

"Sorcen," Heste said, "What did he do?"

Sorcen stroked the scars on his cheek. "You're pregnant."

Heste fell to her knees and started sobbing. Flames spouted from her back, scorching the light hanging from the ceiling. The light went out, and glass dripped onto the tile floor a few feet from her. Alicia's eyes burned from the heat wave.

"Damn it!" she shouted, pounding her fists on the floor. The tile cracked beneath the blow. "Damn it damn it damn it! Why? Why couldn't you live?"

The tile beneath her fists was reduced to a fine powder, revealing cracked concrete beneath. One of the doctors sprayed a fire extinguisher into the air, putting out the fire on the ceiling. A doctor grabbed lanterns out of a drawer and set them up next to the beds.

A shrill metallic whine filled the air, and Dussell's body glowed, bathing the room in blue light. His body dissolved, leaving behind a small blue sphere with a sinuous dark line in its center. Heste grabbed it, and the sphere sank into her palm. The flames on her back turned bright blue, the fur on her back blackened, and the fur on her belly and face turned a ghostly white. Her eyes glowed dark blue. She grabbed the jacket and gun left behind on the bed and put them on. The jacket, too slim for Heste, popped a few seams, and the top was scorched off by her flames. Dussell's pistol seemed a toy in her hands, too small for her fingers to pull the trigger.

"Do you have any objections to me taking over as Chief?" Heste asked.

No one spoke a word. After a minute, Fale opened the door and walked in.

"I have a new lead for us, at the police — holy shit, is that you Heste?" Fale gazed in shock at the vivid blue flames spouting from your back.

"You mentioned a lead," Heste said. "Start talking."

"Y-y-yes sir," Fale stammered. "I, uh, I'll tell you on the way there. We s-s-should get going."

"Go," Sorcen said. "I need to speak with Alicia in private." Alicia's head started to spin. Sorcen guided her back to her bed as the others walked out.

"It's his child, isn't it?" Sorcen asked. "You don't have to worry. I can take care of that right now. It'll be painless."

Alicia's mind raced with a jumble of thoughts. A chorus of voices told her to say yes and no in a dissonant unison. His hand approached her stomach, and on impulse, she brushed it away.

"Please don't," she whispered.

Sorcen's eyes widened, and he backed away. He ran his hand over his face and said, "So, that's how it was. I'll deal with this later."

Alicia's mind plummeted into darkness, and she could feel the blood rushing to her head. She heard Sorcen mutter, "Why does pregnancy have to be such a tragedy?" the moment before she passed out.

Chapter 29: Lorende

Lorende kept watch on the brothel for three hours, perched on a street post a discreet distance away from the premises. The police never came. Instead, she saw Arkus and Eck suddenly materialize in front of the brothel before going inside.

A sickly wave of nausea roiled through her gelatinous gut, and she pondered where to go. After a minute, she realized there was only one option. She flapped to the police station and morphed into a clefable above the building. She pushed the doors open, her stubby hands squishing against the glass, and she walked up to the front desk.

"Excuse me," she told the raichu, "I made an anonymous call earlier, and I've been watching Lorie's for the past few hours. You haven't sent anyone there, did you."

"No, something came up," the raichu answered. Beads of sweat trickled down his brow, and his uniform clung to his arms.

"I need to speak with the chief, if that's possible. I have more information to share."

He picked up his mug of coffee, took a sip, and set it on his desk without making a sound. "Chief's dead. The Board's coming, though, and they'll pick a new chief."

Lorende tensed up. She flexed the long pink spines sticking out of her back as debated leaving. She glanced around the police station. The officers sat listlessly at their desks, pushing pencils and leafing through papers without reading them.

"It's fine," she said, "I'll speak with them."

"Alright. While we wait, would you mind telling me more about yourself? How did you come by this information?"

"I need to know what happened first," she said.

The raichu furrowed his brow and said, "Sorry miss, that information's classified. You'll have to wait for the board to clear it."

"We don't have time for that. If you tell me everything now, we can go after Keith that much sooner."

He moved a few papers around on his desk and twirled his cup. Then he said, "I suppose it can't hurt. After we got your call, we got a sighting of Keith, and the whole force went after him. The whole thing was a wild goose chase, and he vanished. Chief and Fale ran off somewhere, and minutes later, Chief's in the hospital and the Board's out in force. The Father's dead. Keith's gone, and apparently, Keith's not the one that killed the Father, but some human." The raichu looked down into his empty cup. "That's about it. Now, your information please."

"My name is Lorende," she said, "And I ran the place. My brother designed the underground hideout, and I've been using it for my own purposes until now."

"I see. Have a seat, they'll be here in a minute."

Lorende sat on the hard wooden bench the officer pointed at. She felt herself ooze between the cracks in the bench, and she tried to bunch herself up into a tighter ball. She waited. Each second, more of her seeped into the cracks, and she began to worry if bits of her would drip away.

The doors flew open with a thunderous crack. The officers turned towards the door as a typhlosion with blue flames and a tattered police uniform stormed into the station. Every officer rose in salute, their hands shaking and their throats bulging in and out. A wigglytuff cowered behind her, tiptoeing in her footsteps.

"G-g-greetings madam!" the raichu stammered. "I, uh, I'm, uh, sorry for your l-l-loss."

"Do you still have big bertha?" the typhlosion asked.

"I, uh, yes madam, er, Chief, as clean as she was five years ago."

"Good. Kaska, load it and bring it here."

"Y-y-yes Chief. Glad to have you back." The raichu ran into a back room. The new chief lifted her head and shouted, "The rest of you, off your asses and grab a gun! Bring out the heavy artillery, we're holding nothing back from those bastards. Get the mortars and machine guns, and every last fricking grenade we have, damn it!" A burst of blue fire from her back punctuated her shout, and the officers leapt from their desks, crowing the door to the storage room. Officers were shoved and tossed aside as they scrambled for weapons.

The chief turned her head and glanced at Lorende. "You. What are you doing here?"

She wriggled out of the bench and said, "I have information."

"Spit it out then. Stop wasting time."

Lorende hesitated for a second, but the typhlosion's scowl made her speak. "Keith's in Lorie's. There's an underground shelter beneath the building."

"Excellent. Men! Get the cars started. I want the whole station there in five minutes!"

A group of zoroark walked in. The leader, a scarred zoroark with a white hat and gold-tipped cane, said "not yet, Heste. We still have matters to discuss."

The officers facing the door stopped in their tracks and saluted the zoroark. A pair carrying a mortar dropped their load, crushing a vigoroth's foot. He hopped on one foot and gritted his teeth while saluting.

Kaska ran to the front desk, holding a rifle taller than he was. The barrel was three inches thick and three feet long. Its armor-piercing slugs could punch holes through concrete and blastoise shells, and each clip held enough firepower to topple a building. He swayed back and forth, bumping into desks and tripping over his own feet.

"Careful with that," Heste said, grabbing the gun as he fell over. She hefted the gun in her arms and wiped off a spot of dust from the rifle's grip.

Kaska glanced at her uniform, wiped some sweat off his face, and asked, "Would you like your old uniform? We have it in the back."

"This will do."

"Heste, Deryl, you two into the Chief's office," Sorcen said. "You too, informant. We need to discuss what to do. The rest of you, get ready."

She was escorted into the office by a tall zoroark. She took the seat closest to the door, a padded chair that squished a little more than her bottom.

Sorcen took a seat in the Chief's chair. Deryl sat to his left, and Heste leaned against the wall.

Sorcen cleared aside the papers scattered on the desk and asked, "So, what's going on?"

"I don't know. They set up a bunch of weird machinery down there, miles of cables, and hundreds of metal chairs. And I don't know why, all I know is someone else is involved. I saw a human without any hair, one I never saw before."

Sorcen leaned forward on the desk, placing his thumbs between his eyes and tapping his fist with his index finger. "Are you suggesting that there's outside involvement in this?"

"I think so. It's the only explanation for how they got everything in there in a few days."

"Okay, I think I see your story. However, you haven't told us everything, like the fact that you've been running this underground organization until a few days ago, nor have you told us who or what you are or what's in the box you're hiding in your chest."

Lorende sagged into her seat. "How did you know?"

Sorcen smiled. "I guessed. I also assume you have some connection to Keith."

Lorende shifted back into her natural blobby self, her beady eyes staring out from a gelatinous mass dripping from the chair. She vomited up a shining metal box, which Sorcen mentally lifted onto the desk.

"What is this?"

"My brother predicted this," Lorende said. "He made the underground shelter and ordered me to make a resistance movement against you. He also told me to give the box to whoever sees it first. His final instructions are in there."

Sorcen opened the box. Inside was a delicate white scroll with a crystal rod in the center. He picked up the rod by its crystal knobs and unwound a section of the scroll.

"Do not read this aloud. There are secrets in here that would destroy everyone if heard by the wrong people."

Sorcen frowned and held the scroll closer to his face. As he twisted the crystal knobs, the previous scroll dissolved into silver dust. Once he was finished, he scooped up the dust and placed it in the box.

"Well, what did it say?" Lorende asked.

Sorcen took his hat off. The top of his head was a jagged red scar, and tiny droplets of blood formed pools in the cracks. The inside of his hat had a fluffy towel drenched with blood.

"I need to be alone for a moment."

"Any orders sir?" Deryl asked.

"Leave. All of you."

The zoroark stood and bowed. Once they were out the door, the lock clicked behind them. Deryl spoke with the others while Heste shouted orders at the officers. Lorende changed into a clefable and leaned against the wall next to the door.

A minute later, the door opened and Sorcen said, "I need to speak with you Lorende. Alone."

Lorende walked inside. His hands were covered in blood, and handprints were smeared onto the desk.

"I need to ask you something. How much did Alicia know?"

"About Keith's plans?" Lorende asked. "Not at all."

"Did she love him?"

"I, uh, I think so. Why do you ask?"

Sorcen leaned forward. A stream of blood dripped down his face, and droplets fell off his chin. "And did he love her?"

"I – I don't understand. Why are you asking?"

"Did you know she is pregnant? Was that a part of his plan?"

Lorende didn't understand at first. Then she realized it was his child, Keith's child, and her mind went numb. Her body dissolved into a gelatinous pink goop that dripped onto the floor.

"I guess you didn't know," Sorcen said. He put on his hat and wiped the blood off his face and hands. "I've made my decision. Call the others in here for me, will you?"

Lorende bunched herself up and squished out the door. Once everyone was back inside, Sorcen handed Deryl a sealed envelope and said, "This is a declaration of my succession. Should I die, the strongest zoroark alive will take over. Many zoroark will die in the coming hours, and we have to make sure the line of succession is clear. Convey my wishes to the family, and have the best fifty join the police on their assault on the humans."

Sorcen tapped his cane on the ground and said, "This will be a distraction from the real objective. I will enter through a hidden passage with Lorende and deal with the problem myself. No one else will accompany me."

"Sir!" Deryl shouted. "You can't, you're the leader of the family! Have someone else go, or at least take others with you."

"I'm the only one powerful enough to sustain an illusion over multiple people, and if any more come with me, we'll increase our chances of being caught. It has to be this way."

"I don't know what that scroll told you, but you shouldn't listen to it! We can't trust her, or anyone else outside of the family."

"The scroll gave me a choice. I chose what was best for us."

"But—"

"I have given my orders, Deryl. I have nothing more to say."

Deryl stood and clenched his hands. Each of his words rattled through his gritted teeth. "I. Understand. Sir. I'll have everything ready at once."

"Good. Lorende, come with me. I'll need you to guide me through the tunnels."

Lorende felt a knot form in her stomach as she wondered what the scroll said. She followed, her footsteps squelching on the floor as the pokemon around her prepared for war.


	14. Chapters 30-31

Chapter 30: Heste

Heste didn't know if the burning sensation in her heart came from grief or the power searing her veins. All she knew is she would use it to destroy all the people responsible for her husband's death.

As soon as she was given the order, she hollered and shouted the officers into the police cars. They drove off in a long, silent line and parked in front of the brothel. Once the surrounding area was evacuated, the officers approached the building in one large unit, holding riot shields in front of them and pointing pistols at the door.

Once the front of the group approached the door, it opened, and dozens of short squat boxy machines with thin, rigid arms rolled out of the brothel. Slots opened up in their midsections, revealing machine guns that rattled with gunfire. The riot shields cracked as they deflected the bullets, and the officers backed away towards the cars.

"Form a line of defense and give those bastards hell!" Heste shouted. The officers wedged riot shields into the gaps of the cars, aimed their pistols through gaps and over the wall, and shot at the robots. The lower caliber bullets ricocheted off their hard metal surface, but a few lucky shots found their way into the gap and stopped the units.

"Aim for the opening!" one officer shouted. At once, the gun openings closed, and the robots marched forward. The officers kept firing, but their bullets couldn't take them down.

"Set up the mortars!" Heste shouted. "Get the high caliber rifles! We can't let them get past the wall!"

Heste fired at the machines leading the charge, punching inch-wide holes through them. They hit the ground with a crackle of static and the high-pitched whine of a dying engine. The bots behind them shoved the mechanical corpses out of their path and kept advancing.

A mortar ten feet behind her belched a plume of smoke, and an explosive charge landed in the center of the bots with a heavy thud. A moment later, the charge went off, scattering bits of machines across the battlefield. Three more charges buried themselves among the survivors, blasting shrapnel-lined craters into the street. The officers shot the few remaining machines and checked each one for survivors.

"Well, that was fun," Fale said, reloading a rifle half again his height.

Heste could hear a mechanical whine from inside the building. "Hear that?" she asked. "It's not over yet. Officers, back in line! There's more of the bastards!"

The brick front of the brothel exploded, and squadrons of machines poured out of the holes. They marched in phalanxes, thick metal plates held in front and above their formations.

"Send three officers with high-cal rifles to each flank. The rest of you, open fire!"

Some bullets found their mark, but most deflected off the shields. Each time one fell, another seamlessly took its place. The robots in the center held pistols in their hands. They fired a hail of bullets at the line of officers, and one cop fell to his knees, clutching at a bullet wound in his gut. Blood smeared across the concrete as two officers dragged him away from the firefight.

The mortars went off again, and the charges had enough momentum to slip through the shields, splintering their formations. The officers on the flanks finished off the stragglers, and once again, the streets fell silent.

"Please tell me that's it," Fale said. Sweat poured down his brow, and his arms shook as he dragged his rifle behind him. Heste turned an ear towards the brothel and heard more.

"Look alive! We've got a third wave!"

One large phalanx marched out of the brothel. This time, the flanks were guarded with plates while the tops were left open.

"They're adapting to our tactics," Heste muttered to herself. Then she glanced to the side and saw smaller groups marching on the flanking forces. "Get the flanks out of there! Send them back to the line, and form up in a semicircle. Get all the mortars out, hold nothing back!"

Mortar fire rained down on the robots, but they dispersed from each blast, then one robot would jump on top of it, holding a metal cup over the charge. The blast sent each martyr flying, smashing them against the pavement, but the phalanx kept advancing.

"Get the grenades!" Heste shouted over the gunfire and mortar blasts. "We have to break apart the front of their formation."

Officers threw a volley of grenades into the front lines. The machines lowered their shields to protect themselves from the grenades and were torn apart by high caliber fire. The third wave collapsed once the shield-bearers fell, and with a final retort of mortar fire, silence descended once more. However, their respite this time was far briefer. A fourth wave marched out, same as before. Heste wondered how they would adapt this time.

"Watch for anything different! Report to me if you see any new threats!"

The front lines were disrupted by grenades like last time, and like last time, the robots were beaten back by gunfire. However, Heste saw a flash of light from the roof of the brothel. A tremendous crack echoed across the streets, and an officer fell with a bullet through his head.

"They've got snipers!" one officer called. "Everyone get down!"

"Concentrate mortar fire on the roof!" Heste shouted. "Turn the whole damn building to rubble!"

Mortar shells buried themselves in the rooftop. A series of bangs collapsed the roof, and the snipers were buried under an avalanche of brick and concrete. Another round of mortar fire and gunshots finished off the remaining robots.

No sooner than the bits of metal from the last mortar explosion hit the ground, another squadron of robots marched forth. This batch held no shields, and their white metal casings glowed in the afternoon sun. Everyone opened fire, and mortar rained upon the robots. The bullets glanced off their armor, and although they were tossed around by the blasts, they picked themselves up without a scratch on them.

"It's no good!" Kaska yelled. "Nothing's leaving a dent in them!"

Heste's mind raced through the situation. She wondered why these robots weren't sent out earlier and realized they must have some other flaw.

"Kaska, try shocking them! You too Matt!"

"Yes mam!" The electric types saluted her and unleashed a bolt of thunder on the center of the squadron. Lighting arced back and forth across the robots, and smoke erupted from each unit. They collapsed, twitching as their circuits burned.

The sixth unit of bots marched out. These glowing paladins carried rubber shields and were outfitted with black rubber pads. Bullets riddled holes through the front row shields, and they were quickly swapped for fresh protection.

"I don't think we have another one in us," Kaska said. His legs trembled, and Matt fell onto his back.

"Use the shock grenades! Hold nothing back!"

The officers threw a volley of metal orbs into the midst of the robots. The electrical discharges made a few holes in their ranks, but they kept marching. The front-row bots held their shields over the grenades thrown at them, and the rubber melted as it absorbed the electric shock.

"We can't hold them back!" the officers cried as the bots began smashing the cars, pushing aside gaps in the wall. A few slots opened up, and several officers were mown down. One robot made it past, but it was dispatched with a taser. The other officers had taken out their own tasers, but they lacked the ammunition to hold them back.

"We should fall back!" Fale shouted.

"Not yet! The Leader's counting on us to break through! We will not fail!"

Another bot made it past and caved in an officer's skull with its metal fist. Then it was crushed flat with a bolt of dark energy. Heste looked behind her and saw fifty zoroark in heavy padded suits, marching around the flanks and obliterating the bots in their path. Deryl, escorted by four guards, walked up to Heste.

"You weren't supposed to start yet," he said.

"We didn't have time, and we can handle ourselves."

The zoroark took positions on the surrounding rooftops and crushed the few remaining bots. Lances of dark energy carved craters into the marred street and split the machines into tiny pieces. A few minutes later, the last of the paladin bots fell, and it was silent once more.

"Alright, let's get in there," Deryl said.

"Not yet. It's been like this six times now. Each time, they counter what we throw at them. Have the zoroark pull back and wait for what comes out."

"They won't be able to counter us. All units, advance!"

No sooner than the officers vaulted over the battered, beaten cars, a new batch of bots marched out of the rubble. This lot sparkled with blue crystals and carried crossbows. The zoroark unleashed a torrent of dark energy, but it hissed and crackled against their sparkling armor. The bots opened fire, and three zoroark fell under crystal bolts, writhing in agony as their flesh burned down to bones. The remaining units fell back, beaten behind walls and cars by volley after volley of bolts. The officers opened fire, and a few crossbows broke under the assault, but the machines kept advancing. Mortars roared and shock grenades hissed, but nothing could stop the sparkling metal army.

"We're finished," Deryl whispered. "We should fall back, regroup, and reassess the situation."

"No," Heste said. "I won't let it end this way."

She felt a potent surge of energy building up in her chest. It trickled up her throat, and fire crackled at the back of her throat. She stepped in front of the cars and breathed a massive plume of blue fire. The machines whined and sputtered as they melted, and in seconds, every machine was reduced to metallic puddles filling the street's craters.

The silence was complete. Pools of metal bubbled in jagged craters in the street, and smoke bellowed out from the rubble of the building. The police advanced cautiously and picked through the smoking rubble.

"Shit," Fale said. "This is going to take forever to clean up." His hands shook as they clenched the grip of his revolver, and his uniform sagged with his sweat.

The zoroark stepped forward and waved their hands to the left. The rubble rolled into a back alley, revealing a stone staircase amidst the shattered foundations. At the bottom was a wall of sparkling white metal.

"Nine, analyze the metal and see if we can dig around it," Heste ordered. The claydol teleported to the scene and tapped one of its bulbous appendages against the door.

 _There's no way around the door. A section of the ground below us is sealed off with this metal. It's equally thick at all locations._

"Then we'll have to burn through it. Stand back." Heste churned the fires in her back and blew a jet of blue fire at the door. It glowed from the heat, but the metal remained solid. Heste kept up the fire for ten minutes, her lungs aching and her head spinning as her body slowly consumed its stores of oxygen. After fifteen, the energy ebbed out of her. Her black fur lightened to blue, and the white darkened to yellow. Her blue flames sputtered and went out, replaced by a feeble red ember. She sagged against the stairs, bathed in a soft blue glow by the door.

"Damn it," she said, tapping her fist against the door. Her hairs were singed from the heat. "So close."

She was carried over to the other wounded. Off to her side, officers laid out the corpses of the fallen and covered them with tarps.

Deryl held a hand over her head and told her, "You should be fine after a few days of rest. I'm afraid we now have no choice but to have faith in Sorcen."

Heste looked up at the sky. A cloud of smoke hung over the battlefield like a swarm of flies. She tried to stay awake, but she couldn't stop her eyelids from sagging closed, nor could she stop her oxygen-deprived mind from falling into oblivion.

Chapter 31: Lorende

City hall had a haunted broom closet. Janitors over the years complained about sudden drafts blowing over mops and voices coming from the closet floor. The closet was investigated many times throughout Palsitore's history, but it wasn't until Lorende squished herself into a crack on the floor and popped the lock open that its mysteries were solved.

Once Sorcen and Lorende were inside, the entire closet slid down, stone gears grinding against the walls as the closet lumbered to a stop. Behind them was a new opening, with a staircase descending into darkness. Sorcen felt his way ahead, and Lorende rolled down behind him. Once they reached the bottom, Lorende squeezed into another crack and peered into the hallway on the other side.

"Alright, it's clear over here," she whispered, "but I can hear humans nearby."

Lorende pried the door open and morphed into a little girl, with a tattered, dirty skirt and bare feet. Sorcen ran a hand over her, and she felt her flesh solidify as power seeped into her. She turned behind her and saw Sorcen had morphed into an elderly man, wearing a shabby green hat and hobbling along with the assistance of a battered wooden cane.

Sorcen coughed into his hand and wheezed in an elderly voice, "We better get moving. Whatever they're planning, it's going to start soon. Do you know where they took him?"

"I think the dining hall," she answered, "But I don't think we'll be able to get in there."

"Only one way to find out." Sorcen smiled at her, revealing a gummy mouth sparsely populated with a few shriveled teeth. He led the way, stamping his cane as he hunkered through the hallway. Lorende, in the body of a little girl, followed behind her, clutching at the skirt as she ran with tiny faltering steps.

 _Can you hear me alright?_ Sorcen asked telepathically.

 _I can hear you fine,_ Lorende thought back. _Do you have a plan?_

 _I'll try to badger my way inside. I'm such an old coot, they'll probably take pity on me and let me go wherever I want. Just play along, alright? I'll help you out if you need it._

The tapping drew two black-garbed humans with green-eyed masks. They held out a hand and said, "We need to get you to a chair now. The project's about to begin."

"I'm not getting into any chair without my daughter!" Sorcen shouted, waving his cane at the hall behind them. "I just saw her go down the corner over there."

One of the men glanced at his wrist and said, "We still have some time. Let's find your daughter quickly and get you into a chair, alright?"

"Yes, yes, Renee my sweet child! Where did you go? Leslie's looking for you!"

 _Call out to your mother,_ Sorcen whispered in her mind.

Lorende tugged at a guard's skintight suit and asked, "Have you seen my mommy around here?"

"No, but we'll find her quickly, and once we do, we have to get you in a chair, alright?"

"Okay mister."

 _Very good. Tell me which way to go and keep acting like a little girl._

Sorcen rambled and muttered as he limped through the halls, shoving the guards away when they offered to help him walk. A few twists and turns later, they came into the main caverns, lined with metal cables and metal seats. Hundreds of humans sat in the seats, strapped in with thick nylon belts. Their hands were laid out on the arms of the chairs, and thin metal spikes stuck into the spaces between their knuckles. The spikes were connected to the walls through a bundle of think metal wires.

As Lorende looked around, she saw all manner of humans in the chairs – children, women, elderly, injured. Even a burly man with thick, heavy bandages around his throat sat in the chair, his eyes unfocused as he gazed up at the ceiling.

Sorcen peered at the walls as he hobbled along. A few turns later, Lorende told him where the door was and he scrambled towards it.

"There!" he shouted. "She went in there, I just saw her!"

"The door is locked," one of the guards said. "She didn't go in there."

"Then explain to me why I just saw her go in there."

"She's not in there, now let's get you in a seat."

 _Help me out,_ Sorcen said. _Tell them how I get cranky or something._

"Excuse me mister, but could you open the door?" Lorende asked. "Grampa gets real grumpy when people don't listen to him."

"You're darn right I get grumpy! Now let me in there so I can give my daughter a piece of my mind. The nerve, making an old man run around this huge place. It's a wonder I didn't get lost!"

"I'm sorry, but the door's locked from the inside. No one's allowed in or out until the project is complete. Now get in a chair, we don't have much time left."

As they were escorted down the hall, Lorende thought _Do you have any other ideas?_

 _I already tried them. Something on the other side of that door's blocking my powers. I can't even unlock the door. Looks like we'll have to play along for now._

They were placed in two open chairs, and the spikes were stuck into their hands. They slid in without any pain, just a slight icy sensation. The chairs were cold and hard, and Lorende shivered as she tugged at the spikes. They were firmly in place; the spikes moved with her hands.

 _We're stuck,_ Lorende thought.

 _Seems so. My powers aren't working on the chair or spikes either._

 _Now what do we do?_

 _We wait. Once this project of theirs is over, then we'll grab Keith and get out of here._

The spikes in her hands warmed up. The thought of them, wedged into her tendons, scraping against bone, made her fidget around. The mechanical arms holding the spikes into place whined and whirred as she struggled.

"Stop that racket! I'm trying to get some shut-eye!" _Relax,_ Sorcen told her mentally, _we just need a little patience._

 _These spikes are uncomfortable. What are they for anyways?_

 _We'll find out soon enough._

A loud thud shook the cavern. The humans around them muttered nervously among themselves as more and more bangs echoed down the halls. An announcement system, built into the chairs, crackled to life.

"Our sentries have engaged the enemy forces," the speakers said. The multitude of voices echoed, creating a dissonant din. "The situation remains under control. The Delta Project shall begin in ten minutes. Once we have confirmed that everyone is seated, we'll start up the machines. You will most likely feel a burning sensation where the injectors are inserted in your hands, but please remain calm so no anomalies occur in the procedure."

The muttering ceased, and everyone sat rigid in their seats. Black-clad guards strode down the hall, tugging at the restraining arms and belts. One rustled her hair and said, "Be a good little girl and wait a little while longer, okay?"

"Okay mister," she replied with a petulant frown.

 _Are you sure we should be in these?_ Lorende asked.

 _I don't know, but we didn't have any choice._

 _Do you think the officers will make it through?_

There was a long pause. She listen to Sorcen breathing in and out, his pace slowing, before he replied, _I don't think so._

More explosions shook the building, these louder and more vivid than before. The humans began to worry again, but another message came over the announcement system, telling them they have successfully stopped the pokemon and the project will begin in one minute. All eyes darted to a clock hanging from the wall. Lorende counted down the seconds. Sixty, fifty-nine, fifty-eight.

 _My time is almost up. I'm going to die once the project starts._

 _How?_

 _I don't know, but Ty'mir told me. He said I would have a choice to make, one that would determine the future of our kind._

Fifty-one, fifty, forty-nine.

 _What do you mean, a choice? What choice?_

 _He told me no matter what we did today, the outcome would remain the same. Something terrible is about to be set in motion, and it'll plunge our kind into centuries of despair. However, it doesn't have to last. He told me that, at one point, Keith will be imprisoned, and you're the key to freeing him. Either I could guide you down here, die, and enable his future escape, or I could do nothing, live, and allow him to be captured._

 _You chose to save him? Why?_

Sorcen glanced at the clock. Twenty-four seconds of his life remained. _He said only one choice would redeem us. And… I no longer think of Keith as our enemy. Not after what Alicia told me. So I chose to place my faith in him._

Fifteen, fourteen, thirteen.

 _What else did he say?_

 _He said no matter what I chose, it will get much worse before anything gets better. So, could you do me one last favor?_

 _What is it?_

Seven, six, five.

 _If you can, let him know I tried to do the right thing._

"Let who know?" Lorende asked aloud. No one heard her. The last second blinked across the clock's digital screen, and the wires around her thrummed with energy. Searing tendrils of power crawled through her bones, solidifying her, strengthening her. She hadn't felt so solid in six hundred years, and the sensation of her heart – her heart – beating in her chest brought a smile to her face. She glanced at Sorcen, and her smile vanished. He had been reduced to a pile of ash, his wide-brimmed green hat perched atop the pile and his gold-tipped cane clattering on the stone floor.

The humming stopped, but the searing power within her remained. She could feel it in each beat of her heart, each breath of air, each twitch of her muscles. And she could feel it in the others around her, the ecstasy of their new strength, hope, pride, joy, she could sense the glimmers of their thoughts skating on the surface of their minds like an oil slick over a turbulent pond.

She was the key. This is what he meant the power within her. Now she could accomplish the feats that have eluded her for so long. Those thoughts surfaced in her mind, and she struggled to suppress them, hide him from all the other minds she was naked to.

A voice crackled through the announcement system, saying "please do not attempt to get up from the chairs, the system has to cool down before we can remove the restraints."

She tugged at her hands, but they were firmly held in place. The machine's protests were higher-pitched than before, squeaking as oversized ball bearings struggled to swivel the machine's joints. She kept still and waited, watching Sorcen's ashes drifting away in a draft. She tried to collect the ashes with her mind, but she felt the spikes in her hand absorbing the energy.

The voice shouted through the announcement system one last time. "Get your hands out, now! Yank them out—" The voice was cut off, and a heartbeat later, she knew why. An icy cold power, like an arctic river laden with ice, rushed through the cables and into her arms. It hissed against the warmth within her, and the crackles of power pried her body apart. She glanced around at the other chairs and saw the men and women dissolving into tiny black particles that hovered around the floor like a fog. She looked down at her own hands and saw them bubbling with blackness. Her arms bulged, and her chest was squeezed against the nylon strap.

She took one last look at the clock before she exploded into minuscule pieces of flesh and a concussive blast of light and darkness.


	15. Chapters 32-33

Chapter 32: Arkus

Arkus kept his eyes closed as he and Eck walked past the line of policemen. He sensed each twitch of Eck's muscles through Eck's grip on his wrist. His muscles tensed and flinched with excitement.

"What are you planning?" Arkus asked.

"That would spoil the surprise." Arkus could feel the grin on Eck's face. Though invisible, the image of it mocked him. He subtly flexed his arm, trying to slip out of his grip, but Eck's grip tightened.

"Don't try to run. You wouldn't want more people to get hurt, do you?"

"You're going to hurt them all anyways, aren't you?"

"Only the pokemon, but they deserve it. They stole the planet from us. You know. You were there when it happened."

"This is madness Eck. You have to reconsider."

"How do you know? You don't even know what we're planning. It's going be wonderful, trust me, I know you'll love it."

"If I'm really going to love it, then why don't you tell me and I'll cooperate."

"Oh no. I don't want to ruin the surprise. It is going to make you so happy."

Throughout the conversation, Arkus waited for an opening, but Eck's careful stride left his aura evenly distributed, with no weakness to exploit. He opened his eyes and saw the brothel. A dozen black-clad guards appeared around them, so suddenly that Arkus realized they were there the whole time, invisible to his senses. They descended the stairs into the labyrinth of metal wires and chairs. The humans sitting in them looked at him greedily as he stumbled down the steps.

"Do you like the new decorations?" Eck asked. "It's a bit unfinished for my tastes, but we only had a few hours to set it all up."

"What are you planning?"

"We're almost there, don't worry. I'll tell you once it's all set up."

Eck spasmed in pain, and he reached for his head. Arkus saw an intense buildup of Aura in the front of his brain. Blood poured out his nose, and his eyes turned bloodshot red. Arkus slipped back, but he was seized by two guards behind him. Though he struggled, he couldn't break their grip.

Eck stood up and wiped the blood from his nose. He told Arkus, "I can't imagine how you dealt with it for so long."

"I was designed for it. You were not."

Eck paused and rubbed the hair above his forehead. "Maybe this isn't a good idea."

Arkus rejoiced at the perceived opening. "It isn't too late to reconsider. We've already accomplished what we set out to do. Ath is dead, and now we can negotiate with the others. Humanity can be free again.

The metal doors in front of him opened, and a burly white man in a lab coat stepped out. The lower half of his face was obscured by a big, bushy white beard, and his bald head shone in the light of ceiling LEDs. He had slender lab goggles over his eyes, such a color that they seemed an extension of his own flesh. His tall black boots clicked with each step on the stone floor.

"Humanity will never be free so long as pokemon exist," the man said. "This is why they must be purged, and you, Keith, are the key to our salvation, just as we predicted six hundred years ago."

Arkus felt Eck's confidence renewed. He narrowed his eyes at the man and asked, "Who the hell are you?"

"Ah, how rude of me," the man answered with a broad sweep of his right arm. "I am Doctor Riezbal, the director of section Delta of the Sinex Order, and a member of the Sinex Conglomerate."

"And what is this Sinex?"

"There'll be time for more questions during the calibrations," Doctor Riezbal answered. "Time's of the essence, and it would take too long to tell you the whole tale now."

Arkus was led inside. The dining hall was converted into a circular chamber of thick metal cables, covering the floor and ceiling with metal. They clambered over the cables and onto sheets of metal providing a rudimentary floor. Seven chairs occupied the room, six along the walls and the seventh in the heart of the room. Arkus was placed in the seventh chair, and long metal arms were attached above his wrists, at the bony projections sticking out of his hands. Long skinny drills were perched right above the points.

"I'm terribly sorry, Keith, but we didn't have time to prepare a proper anesthetic," Doctor Riezbal said. "This is going to hurt quite a lot, I imagine, so I'll make it as quick as I can."

Dozens of nylon straps were wrapped around his chest and arms, and his wrists were bolted into place with long, thick metal straps. Arkus struggled and pushed against them, but he couldn't move. As he choked himself on the strap around his neck, the doctor waved his hand and a guard removed it. He could move his head, but everything else remained restrained.

"Are you ready?" Doctor Riezbal asked. Eck turned away and held his hands over his ears. The Doctor pulled a flat console with multiple buttons out of a wall, and hit a small red button. The drills descended, hissing and screeching as they bored through his bones. Arkus screamed in pain, jerking and pushing at his restraints, convulsing as bolts of pain lanced up his arms. He could feel the hot, scalding drills scraping deeper and deeper into his bones, each scrape more painful than the crushing of toes. He could see Izzo's terrified face, a six-hundred year old memory burned to the forefront of his mind by the drilling of his hands. He couldn't stop tears from dripping down his face.

With a final screech, the drills lurched to a stop, then spun in reverse, pulling themselves out with a faint hiss. Then cables with spikes at the end were inserted into the holes. The metal felt cold against his freshly-exposed bone, and he shivered as the spikes stuck into his marrow.

"You're still conscious?" Doctor Riezbal asked. "Good. I hope it wasn't too painful for you."

Arkus took several deep, faltering breaths and asked, "What the hell are you planning?"

"Right, you still have no idea. I'll start you off with some history then. You should know the whole story."

The Doctor took off his goggles and sit down. "Six hundred and fifty one years ago, a scientist, discontent with humanity, tried to replace us with a lifeform of his own design, the pokemon. As a result, almost all of humanity was wiped out. Doctor Sinex, however, learned of this experiment and saved humanity. He created an underground laboratory so we would survive, and he founded the Order which bears his name. His goal was to re-establish humanity as the dominant species of the planet and so, he created six branches, each pursuing a different path. We are the fourth, Delta, and ours was you."

The console beeped, and the Doctor inspected it. Then he pressed a yellow button and said, "Our sentries have engaged the enemy forces. The situation remains under control. The Delta Project shall begin in ten minutes. Once we have confirmed that everyone is seated, we'll start up the machines. You will most likely feel a burning sensation where the injectors are inserted in your hands, but please remain calm so no anomalies occur in the procedure."

"Sorry about that," he said, turning back towards Arkus. "Now then, where was I? Ah, the plans. Yes, the machines here are going to extract your power and redistribute it amongst all the humans in this city. We've gathered everyone from the city of Yvenna as well, and our own agents are also plugged in. Everyone will share in your power, and with it, we'll finally be superior to the pokemon."

Arkus panicked when he realized what would happen. "You have to stop before it's too late. Everyone will die if you try it."

"We have already done some preliminary tests, and the results were quite promising. We've also put plenty of safety features in place. Trust me; we know how dangerous your power is to others."

The console beeped again, and Doctor Riezbal typed in some command prompts onto the keyboard. Then he pressed the yellow button and said, "The enemy forces have been suppressed. The project will begin in exactly one minute."

A blue button was pressed, and a chill ran up Arkus' arms. He could feel the Aura being sucked out of him, and he could see the cables lining the wall glow with his power.

"In ten seconds, we make history." The Doctor put on his goggles, and strapped himself into the chair, poking the spikes through his skin. Arkus looked around and saw everyone, including Eck, doing the same. Once the timer hit zero, the button glowed blue, and he pressed it. Arkus howled in pain as the icy departure of his power seared up his arms. Within a minute, he sagged against the restraints, hollow, empty, and feeling more scared and weak than he had ever been in his life.

"It's done," the Doctor said. "Ah, what a wonderful feeling! Let's put it to work!"

"Not yet," one of the guards said. "We have to wait for the metal to shrink."

"Ah, the heat, that's right." Doctor Riezbal hit the console with his boot and said, "Please do not attempt to get up from the chairs, the system has to cool down before we can remove the restraints."

Arkus' mind raced as he tried to free himself from the chair. Then his suit shifted, and he felt the bottle move around in his pocket. He had an idea. Drink, and he could stop the humans from subjugating the pokemon. His throat went dry at the thought of becoming a zoroark. He asked himself if he could really do it, if he had any right to kill all the humans.

Then he thought of Alicia. He closed his eyes, and focused on his tail. It struggled to obey his commands, limply wagging side to side until the tip landed in his pocket. Then he wrapped his tail around the top of the bottle and slowly dragged it out.

"What are you doing?" Doctor Riezbal asked.

Arkus didn't answer. He concentrated on wriggling the bottle of black liquid onto his lap. He shifted it so it landed cork-up between his legs. Then he leaned forward, straining against the straps as he reached with his mouth towards the bottle. He grabbed the tip of the cork with his teeth and pulled, prying the cork out with a dull, wet smack. He could smell blood from inside the flask. Ath's blood.

"Get the restraints off of me this instant!" he shouted.

"I can't, they're still cooling!" the guard answered.

"Then call a robot in here immediately! We can't let him drink!"

"All the robots were destroyed in the battle."

Arkus grabbed the bottle with his lips and held up his head, pouring the blood down his throat. He gagged from the taste, and then he dropped the empty bottle on the floor, smashing it to pieces. His body writhed and crawled as the new blood rushed into his veins, warping his body, and filling him with an icy, dark power. The bony protrusions crept back into his arms, his face grew more slender, and his blue and white fur darkened to black and scarlet.

Doctor Riezbal slammed the console with his boot and shouted "Get your hands out, now! Yank them out—"

Arkus poured his power into the system. He could feel it rush into the thousands of humans around him, tearing them apart from the inside. The doctor and his guards dissolved into black fog. Eck had yanked his left hand out of the restraints, blood dripping from his torn tendons as he reached towards Arkus. His other hand was still pinned to the machine, pumping icy poison into his nerves.

"Why?" he croaked. His legs dissolved into black fog, and he tumbled onto the floor. His right hand tore, but it remained pinned to the spikes with tiny stringy tendons.

Arkus pushed the melted spikes off his hands, severed the straps with a strand of darkness, and walked over to Eck. He crouched next to him and said, "There was nothing else I could do."

Eck smiled. His face dissolved, and one eye stared at him from the darkness. "There's nothing you can do. Nothing."

With the word still clinging to his lips, Eck dissolved completely and disappeared into the mist.

Chapter 33: Arkus

Arkus collapsed onto the floor, rubbing his aching arms. He grabbed a few hairs between his fingers and twirled them around, stroking the skin beneath.

A shiver ran up his neck, and a surge of blue light flashed across the black fog. A cold wind blew through the room, and more fog rushed in. The fog swirled about itself at the center of the room, condensing, forming a nebulous black sphere above Arkus' chair. It molded itself into the shape of an hourglass, misty wings sprouted from its back, and arms stretched out from the top of its body. The mist at its fingertips hardened into sable claws which glowed in the dim lights. A single blue eye sprouted from the top of its head, and a trail of white smoke billowed out from around the eye, giving the nebulous body a flowing white mane. A jagged red circle sprouted around the eye, making an illusion of a fanged mouth.

The creature of darkness and light arced back and screeched, filling the halls with the sound of metal grinding together. Arkus covered his ears. Bile crept into the back of his throat, and his stomach lurched with the need to puke.

"You," it hissed. The red spines vibrated, giving form to its words. "You made me. Why? Why does it hurt?"

Arkus rubbed his temples, but the pain behind his eyes lingered. He stood up, propping himself against a chair. "I – I don't understand. The powers should have cancelled out. What are you?"

"What am I? I am… I am you, your anger, your sadness, your desperation. And I am their joy, their hope, and their fleeting sense of terror before they fell to darkness. Oh Arkus, it hurts. It hurts! Why did you make me? All those voices… so many voices in my head. Shut up! Why did you make me?"

Arkus sat down in the chair. The presence before him weighed his shoulders down, made him hunch over in his chair and squeeze his chest. He felt his heart struggle with each beat, and each breath burned with the taste of blood.

"You aren't supposed to exist. The Aura, the darkness, they should have destroyed each other. What are you?"

"Destroy me! I can't bear it any longer. No, stop, be quiet! Silence! Just a moment of silence, please!"

 _No, I want to speak with my master._

"Eck?" Arkus asked. "No, it can't be."

"Shut up!" The creature floated over to a wall and pounded its head against the metal, leaving large circular dents. "You are not me, get out of my head!"

 _I am you. We are all you, now, because of him. Now, kill him._

"No! He has to end me!"

 _Kill him. Kill him. Kill him._ The chant was joined by more intangible voices, filling the room with their cry. The creature writhed and clawed at the air, grabbed its head, scratched at its chest. Its eye darted around the room and focused on Arkus.

"Stop it, please, it hurts! Will you be quiet if I kill him?" The hissing voice had a hint of a whimper beneath it.

 _Yes. I will make them be quiet._

"Thank you. Kill me if you can, Maker!"

The creature lunged forward, gouging at Arkus with its claws. Arkus flung himself out of the chair, ducking under the scraps of metal thrown at him. A crackle of darkness seared the back of his neck, and he barely swept it aside with his own energy.

Arkus stood up and turned around. The creature held a blue pulsating sphere in its hands, and looking at it made his skin crawl. The creature flung the sphere, and Arkus bounded over it. The sphere smashed through the walls, revealing a cave on the other side. Arkus ran through it, and the creature followed after him.

"Come back here! You made me, you are responsible for my misery! Now end me!"

Arkus turned and fired a crackle of energy at it. The creature swept it aside with its clawed arm.

"Destroy me. I was never meant to be made. I am a contradiction! I am the color of life and the pallor of death, I am the comfort of warmth and the pain of cold, I am the rays of light and the depths of never ending darkness. I am… I am… I am Darkrai!"

Arkus ran for the exit, flinging bolts of darkness behind him. He reached the end of the tunnel, only to find it blocked by an enormous metal wall. His dark powers glanced off the wall without leaving a dent.

"I've got you now," it said. "So, are you going to kill me, or am I going to kill you?"

Arkus poured all the power he could muster into his hands and flung it at Darkrai. It flew back, but it picked itself off the floor and moved forward.

"Not good enough. Time for you to die."

Arkus' heart started pounding, and his new blood surged through his body. Arcane knowledge of Ath's dark arts flitted across his mind, and his hands moved with a will of their own, weaving a circle in the air.

Darkrai fired a beam of light at him. Before it reached him, Arkus scratched his fingertip and whipped a droplet of blood into the air. It seeped into the darkness he wove, creating a hole in space. The beam entered the hole and emerged behind him, cutting a hole through the door. A zoroark, who was standing behind the door, was impaled with the beam. His torso tumbled onto the stairs, and his legs remained upright, spurting blood into the air.

"What was that?" another zoroark asked, peering through the hole. Arkus shoved her aside as he clambered to the other side.

"Get back!" Arkus' mind raced to think of something to tell her. "The humans made a monster to kill us all. Summon all the zoroark, we need to perform a cleansing. Have them all assemble here."

"A cleansing? But we don't have enough power!"

"Just do it! I can handle it."

"Yes sir!"

He looked back. Darkrai was clawing through the wall, staring at him. "You have a plan?" it hissed. "I can't wait."

"Then stop and wait for us to kill you."

The red spines flexed into the shape of a wicked grin. "Oh no, I'm having too much fun. The voices like it. They love seeing your fear. And when they're happy, I'm happy. I can't stop, not now, not when I'm finally free of the pain you cursed me with."

Arkus ran up the stairs. He approached the first officer he saw and said, "Get all the guns we have. We need to hold off that thing down there until the zoroark arrive. Also, get me a gun as well, something powerful."

The wigglytuff saluted him and ran off. He returned with an enormous rifle and thirty officers.

"This is the biggest we got," he said. "It's the Chief's, so please be careful."

Fale ran towards the stairs, but Arkus grabbed his shoulder. "Wait, there's two more things we will need. Alicia's band and my rifle. It's still in the wedding chamber, right?"

Fale paused for a moment, and then his eyes snapped onto Arkus. "Wait, you—"

"There's no time! Just get it and get back here as soon as possible or we're all dead!"

The wigglytuff looked up and down at Arkus. Then he swallowed and said, "Yes sir." He ran for an undamaged squad car and drove off with the roar of an engine and the squealing of wheels.

The police formed a firing line at the top of the stairs and shot a hail of bullets through the hole. Darkrai floated back and deflected the bullets with its arm.

"That's not going to stop me, Arkus, and it's a pitiful attempt to slow me down."

They kept firing, but a thick purple barrier rose to block the bullets. Darkrai's claws dug into the metal and pulled a strip aside.

Arkus raised his rifle and infused the bullet with dark energy. He fired, darkness flying out the muzzle as the bullet punched through the barrier and passed through Darkrai's eye. It screeched, and the police officers knelt to cover their ears.

The flesh of its eye writhed and melted back together. It hissed, the veins within its eyes bulging as it glared at him.

"That's more pain you've caused me, Maker. I will make you pay for that."

A bolt of pale gray power leapt from the hole. Arkus jumped aside, and the officer behind him lost an arm. The machoke howled in pain as he picked up his gun and fired every round in it.

The barrage continued for another five minutes, the officers racing to reload and fire as Darkrai tore more strips out of the door. Soon, the hole was almost big enough for it to squeeze through. Arkus ordered the police to retreat to the station. While he shot at the Darkrai, the police loaded the wounded into the few remaining cars while the rest ran for the station, dragging their guns as they went.

Darkrai tore through the last shred of metal and floated out the hole it made. It flung bolts of light at Arkus and he leapt out of the way.

"Are you done yet?" Darkrai asked. "I've been so patiently waiting to kill you, and the voices are getting angry again."

Arkus looked around them. They were surrounded by a circle of zoroark holding hands. Dark energy surged up from them like black fire. More zoroark waited outside the circle, watching the battle. Directly behind him was an open spot. He opened a rift to the spot, raced through, and linked into the circle. His power poured out and filled the zoroark around him, turning the ember into a blazing inferno.

Darkrai lunged towards him and was repelled by a surge of black fire. It tried again and again, each time repelled by the flames.

"Are you really going to end me? Thank you so much."

Arkus sent the order through their link, and the zoroark began chanting, flat toneless sounds that cracked the air and beckoned the flames towards the center. Soon, Darkrai was engulfed in a maelstrom of fire, burning away at the extremities.

"Yes, death! Finally! Wait, no, what are you doing? Stop that, I want to die!"

Darkrai surrounded itself with a solid blue shield. The flames crackled and smoked as they touched the barrier.

 _Hold on,_ he told the circle. _We need to keep this up a while longer._

The zoroark gave their assent and redoubled their efforts. The sky, already a murky gray from the earlier battle, turned pitch black from all the smoke. Minutes passed, and neither side showed any signs of wavering. Then a zoroark collapsed. Arkus felt the life ebb from her. The circle's flames shuddered before she was replaced by another zoroark. Two more fell, each quickly replaced, but the flames dimmed and the seething hiss softened into a faint buzz.

"Why?" Darkrai cried. "Why won't you let me die?"

 _We need to stop!_ one zoroark said. _More are going to die if we keep this up._

 _Just a little longer! It's almost here, I can feel it._

More time passed, each minute marked with the death of another zoroark. Arkus closed his eyes and concentrated on the approaching vehicle. Both objects were in the back seat, and the car was a few blocks away. He formed a rift, moving it with the back seat of the car.

 _Hold it as long as you can. I need two minutes._

Arkus left the circle and fell into the rift. He emerged in the back seat, and Fale nearly crashed the car in his surprise.

"Jeez, don't scare me like that."

Arkus buckled the engagement band into place and took the rifle with his banded hand. Then he opened the car door and, while it was still moving, leapt out the window onto a building. He leapt across the rooftops until he had a clear line of sight of the battle below. Twenty more zoroark fell while he was gone, and the flames were a feeble ember. Darkrai lobbed spheres of light at the zoroark and shouted, "Where did you go Arkus! Come out and face me!"

Arkus aimed the gun, his right finger burning as it touched the trigger. He filled the gun with his power, forcing back the bile in his throat as the gun's toxic power invaded his body. He thought about where to aim and remembered the pain it felt when it was shot in the eye.

"Over here!" he shouted.

Darkrai looked up, and Arkus pulled the trigger. The bullet, infused with the paradox of light and dark, pierced Darkrai's eye. Black liquid bubbled from the wound. Darkrai screeched, clawing at its pierced eye and flinging bolts of darkness into the air. Then, with a final cry of rage, it burst apart into black fog. The fog rushed outwards, disappearing into the air as it spread across the land.

Arkus exhaled and brushed his cheek against the rifle. It burned his skin, and he tossed it aside.

"I guess that's over. So, now what?"

The wind blew his hair back as he looked down at the zoroark below him. They stared back in blank amazement, some with tears in their eyes, others with furrowed brows and slight frowns.

Arkus turned away, but as he did, he felt a presence in the air, nudging against the back of his mind and promising to kill him before floating away.

"I'll be ready," he told the presence. He turned back to the zoroark and walked down to them.


	16. Chapters 34-35

Chapter 34: Alicia de Renera

The sound of muttering woke her. It came from off to her right, and though the voice seemed familiar, she couldn't place where she heard it before. She strained her ears and listened.

"Honestly," he said, "The one part of me that stays the same is the one thing I never liked, that blasted ring around my eye. Two new bodies, and it's still there. And did it have to be white?"

Alicia pried her eyes open. The room around her was fuzzy, but she could see a black figure looming over her bed, peering into a mirror. Her vision gradually cleared, and she saw the figure in more and more detail. His claws were the first to come in focus, deep scarlet in color, long, and filed to smoothness. Her gaze crept up his arm to his face. A white circle surrounded his right eye, and he shuffled through the pale hairs with his left hand.

"Maybe I should have them trimmed. I wonder how long it would take to grow back."

Alicia took a deep breath, and her throat ached for water. She turned over and croaked, her tongue too stiff to form the word.

The zoroark turned around. "Ah, you're awake. How are you feeling?"

Alicia tried to speak again, then she pointed at her throat.

"Oh. Got it." He drew a circle in the air and reached through the hole she made. Thirty feet away, at the sink across the room, his hand reached out and grabbed a glass of water. He pulled his hand back out and handed her the water. She took cautious sips until the life came back to her throat.

"Thank you. Um, who are you?"

"Your husband. Like the new body? I'm not too fond of it myself, but I guess I can't be picky."

Alicia blinked as the information sluggishly crawled through her brain. Then she put everything together and said, "Arkus, is that you?"

"Yes. So, what do you think?" He twirled around, his hair swaying with him as he revealed his new body. He had on a tight-fitting black suit and pants, and his hair flowing from the back of his head was bound with an ebony metal ring.

"I thought you said, you said—"

Arkus' smile waned into the barest upward curl as he said, "I didn't have any choice. Might as well make the best of it, right?"

"What happened?"

His smile descended into a slight frown. "Lots. Long story short, I'm a zoroark, hundreds of pokemon died, and all the humans turned into a monster I killed."

A slight creak came from the door, and Arkus glared at it. "I swear to god, open that door any further, and I'll make sure you two never leave this hospital.

The door slammed shut. Alicia leaned forward and shoved the pillow behind her back. "So, now what?" she asked.

"I don't know." Arkus sagged onto a bed and placed his head in his hands. "I don't know. I feel so tired of living. Do you have any idea what it was like, waking up and finding out everyone I knew was dead?" He leaned back and dryly chuckled. A tear danced across the scar on his cheek. "Everyone, ironically, except the one person I hated more than anyone else. And now, even he's gone. I'm so tired."

His words made an icy chill creep into her chest. She pushed herself out of bed with shaking arms, took a few hesitant steps, and fell onto his shoulders, wrapping him with a feeble hug. Arkus leaned forward and returned the hug. They sat there for an hour, holding each other, savoring the warmth building between them, listening to the other's heart beat. Then Alicia's stomach growled, and Arkus' grumbled in response.

"I hope you don't mind eating in the car," he said. "We should've been at the meeting half an hour ago."

"Meeting? What meeting?"

"Come on; let's get you on your feet." He stood, lifting Alicia with him. He placed his arm around her wedding dress, sliding his claws over the airy silk.

"Open the door, will you?" he called towards the door. The two zoroark on the other side opened the door and glared at him as he walked past. Arkus stopped and turned to the zoroark on the left.

"Get us something to eat, will you? It's been hours since either of us ate, and we shouldn't address the family on empty stomachs."

The zoroark grunted and ran off. A minute later, he returned with two trays, each with a plate of bacon, an apple, and a bowl of oatmeal sprinkled with oran berries.

"Excellent, thank you. Let's go."

The zoroark grimaced at the load he had perched on his hands as they walked out the hospital. A long black car was parked in front of the hospital. The first zoroark held the door open and the second handed them their trays. The car lurched forward, and they drove towards the City Hall.

Alicia took a bite out of the apple, savoring the juices dripping down her throat. Then she scooped up the bacon with her fork and ground it into a greasy mash between her teeth before swallowing. She tried the oatmeal, but it was dry and clumpy, and it stuck to the sides of her throat. She washed it down with another bite of the apple.

The car screeched to a stop, and her bowl of oatmeal slid across the tray until it hit the edge. Her apple tumbled off onto the floor, and a drop of grease leapt onto the back of the seat. She glanced over at Arkus. The bacon and oatmeal were gone, and he held the apple as he opened his door. The zoroark opened her door and pulled her onto her feet. Her legs trembled, but she managed to walk up the stairs on her own, leaning against the railing and taking the steps one by one. Arkus walked a step ahead of her, watching her and offering a hand when she stumbled.

The city hall was silent, its reception areas and booth vacant. The two zoroark stood shoulder to shoulder behind them, glaring at Arkus as they descended the stairs to the meeting room.

The tables within the room were replaced with one long stone table. Hundreds of zoroark and their spouses filled its seats, yet it seemed unnaturally empty with the dozens of vacancies scattered across the hall. He and Alicia, beneath the sullen gazes of the other zoroark, sat at one end of the table. The other end, adorned with a high, intricately carved stone seat, remained empty.

"You're late," one zoroark near the head of the table said. "You're lucky Sorcen hasn't arrived yet or you would be punished further."

"Sorcen won't be joining us," Deryl said. He placed the green hat and gold-tipped cane on the table with a hollow thud that echoed in the chamber. "These were found in the hideout, along with a pile of ashes."

"Well, then why haven't you told us earlier? We need to pick the new leader!"

"Sorcen left us with a successor," Deryl said, taking the sealed envelope out of his coat pocket. "I felt it… appropriate to wait until everyone was here to open it."

"So, open it then!" The chorus rang across the table. Deryl sighed and looked down at the envelope before he opened it with deliberate slowness, letting each tear in the seal echo across the hall. The zoroark fell silent, breaths held, waiting for the envelope to open.

The seal hit the table with a gentle plop. In the room's silence, it had all the weight and violent cacophony of a boulder. The envelope opened with all the patience of defusing a bomb. The letter inside crawled out of the envelope, scratching and clawing its way into the open air. Deryl opened it, stared at the fine black print, read and reread it before voicing the words so quietly and so slowly the zoroark had to lean forward to hear him.

"Considering the current state of emergency, I have decided that a clear line of succession is necessary. I do not have the luxury of providing names, since any one of us could die at any moment. So, in the interest of preserving order, the strongest among us shall rule as Elder."

The room remained deathly silent as every pair of eyes fell on Arkus. He smiled and took a bite out of his apple. The crunching echoed across the hall with deafening clarity and smugness. He tossed the apple core behind him and snapped his fingers. The core burned away to nothingness before it hit the ground.

"You'll have to excuse me. I believe we are in the wrong seats."

Power rose from his shoulders like black fire, casting luminous shadows along the walls. He drew a circle in the air, and a gate opened up over him and Alicia. They were both drawn into the gate and lowered on the other side of the hall, Arkus into the ornate seat and Alicia into its empty counterpart to the right.

A zoroark in a white, furry coat stood and shouted, "I cannot allow you to defile the seat of our venerable Father! Sixty-seven of our brothers and sisters died because of you!"

Other zoroark stood and took up the cry, but they were far outnumbered by the zoroark sitting in their seats and staring down at the table.

"How many of you would have died if I never came here?"Arkus asked them. "I can assure you, none of you would be alive right now if it weren't for me."

"Nice try," the zoroark sneered, "but we know the human was your lackey."

"Do you really think Eck was responsible for everything that happened? Where do you think all those resources came from? You saw those machines yourselves. You know they're too sophisticated for any of us to make. Do you really think the humans built those themselves?"

The zoroark and their spouses muttered to each other, and some of the standing zoroark sat down. The white-coat zoroark looked around in panic and said "Lies! All of it! You supplied all those machines, didn't you?"

"Why would I? Those machines nearly killed me, and with me, all other pokemon. Don't be stupid.

"Then perhaps you could explain the situation," Deryl said.

Arkus stood and told them about Sinex. He told them about their plans and how he made them backfire. He spoke of Darkrai's formation, and the voice that spoke when it died. Once he was finished, he stared at each of the standing zoroark until they sat down. The white-coat was the last, taking his seat while hiding his grumbling behind his hand.

Deryl flipped through the papers in front of him. "Well, now that that's finished, the next topic is… oh. Um, the next topic is Alicia's child. Arkus, as you know, in light of what that child will become, many wish to perform an abortion—"

Arkus' response cut through the air like a knife. "Not happening."

"Yes Elder," Deryl hastily said. He shifted through the papers, dropping a few onto the floor. "The next topic, oh where is it?"

"All damages will be paid by the city, and we will begin rebuilding immediately. Monetary support will be given to the family members of the deceased. I believe that is everything, correct?"

"Yes Elder," Deryl said. He glanced around the room, and then he stood from his chair and knelt towards Arkus. Another zoroark followed suit, and within seconds the entire room knelt before him.

Alicia started to kneel, but Arkus held her in her seat. "You shouldn't," he whispered. Then he stood and said, "I will be honest with you. For six hundred years, I have hated each and every single one of you here. Given even the slightest chance, I would not have hesitated to kill all of you."

Arkus fell silent, and the whole room filled with a cold, heavy quiet like a blanket of snow. Then he continued speaking.

"However, that blood-stained past is behind us. We have new enemies, and we need to be ready to face them. And make no mistake; I will do everything in my power to assure the safety of everyone in this city. Including you. You are all dismissed."

Arkus sat down as everyone left the room. Once they were alone, Arkus said to Alicia, "Let's go home."

Alicia's hand crept towards his, and they intertwined their fingers as they walked out to the car.

Chapter 35: Beta Field Agent 14

The cold, dark walls of the Delta Complex sent a cold, tingling sensation through his back. With each footstep, he could hear the whispers of the dead.

He held out the scanner and waved it around. A solid green line swiveled around the monitor, but the scanner remained silent.

He turned down another corner, and suddenly, a blip appeared on the monitor. He raced towards it, his boots clanging on the metal floor. Once the blip crawled to the center of his monitor, he stopped and looked around. The green hat and cane sitting on a chair first caught his eye. He picked up the hat and found a pile of ash beneath it.

"Is that the source?" he asked himself. He held the scanner closer, but the dot moved away from the center. He sighed and scooped some of the ash into a glass container. He tightly screwed the cap on and placed it in the pouch on his black uniform.

He scanned the floor, and then his eyes turned towards the ceiling. A smile leapt across his face when he saw the small, pink, sticky piece of flesh dangling from the ceiling.

"Gotcha," he said, plucking the flesh and holding it in front of the scanner. The entire screen lit up, and the scanner made a rapid series of beeping noises. He screwed off the cap of another container and dropped the flesh inside. He shook the container, watching the flesh jiggle.

A sudden set of footsteps made him look up. He could hear them getting closer. He glanced one last time at the scanner before turning on his invisibility field and creeping out of the Delta Complex. He pressed a button on his sleeve and spoke into it.

"I collected a few samples. There wasn't much – most of the flesh was vaporized. However, I did find a living tissue sample."

"Excellent work Fourteen. We'll extract you in five seconds."

Fourteen turned towards the north and watched as a beam of red light split his atoms into a massless wavefunction and beamed him across miles of empty space.

To be continued in Part Three of the Sinex Conquest Saga: _Through the Darkness_


End file.
